Barclays confirms appointment of new CEO Jes Staley

Barclays confirmed the appointment of former JP Morgan investment banking head Jes Staley as its new chief executive, replacing Anthony Jenkins almost four months after his forced departure.

Boston, Massachusetts-born Staley worked for more than three decades at JP Morgan, beginning in commercial banking and later running its asset-management arm before finally being given the top role at the investment bank in 2009.

Chairman John McFarlane, who joined the board on New Year's Day and has been standing in as an executive chairman since Jenkins' departure, will now step back to his non-executive role when Staley assumes his new position on 1 December.

In a statement issued by the FTSE 100 lender, McFarlane said he and Staley agreed on the way to take the company forward, highlighting the importance of cultural reform and accelerating the delivery of improved shareholder returns.

"Barclays is an incredibly important, broad and complex business. Appointing an individual with the business scope, seasoning and track record is a difficult challenge," he said.

"In Jes Staley we believe we have an executive with the appropriate leadership talent and wide-ranging experience to deliver shareholder value and to take the group forward strategically. In particular, he understands corporate and investment banking well, the re-positioning of which is one of our major priorities."

Staley said it was an honour to be chosen for the role and focused on "stability and long-term orientation" as the cornerstones of the company, without forgetting shareholder returns.

"Barclays is a very valuable franchise: from its retail and commercial banking presence in the UK, its strength in cards and payments, its strong position in Africa, to its investment bank," he said.

"Maximising the potential of this franchise means building on our competitive advantages and developing new ones in order to generate strong returns on capital. If we do this, increased value for our shareholders will follow at the same time as Barclays' long history of leadership is continued and enhanced."

Analysts at Shore Capital said that, given Staley's background in investment banking, coupled with McFarlane’s comments to the media about the need to create a large European investment bank to compete with the US players, there would be many questions about the bank's strategy, for which management will be expected to provide alongside the third-quarter results announcement due on Thursday.

"We had warned to Barclays on the basis that it was de-emphasising the relatively low return investment banking business within the mix and we would see a material reversal of this strategy as a negative to the investment case. However, if it is simply a case of ensuring that a smaller investment banking business generates the best possible return on equity, then we would view this as a positive."

Shares in Barclays were down 0.5% at 249.55p at 0825 on Wednesday.