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Barclays has new boss

August 30, 2012

Britain's Barclays has appointed retail banker Antony Jenkins its new chief executive. The new man at the helm will have to deal with the aftermath of a recent management shake-up in the wake of a rate fixing scandal.

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A view of a Barclay's bank branch in central London
Image: AP

Oxford-educated Antony Jenkins will be Barclay's new chief executive, the British bank announced on Thursday. The 51-year retail specialist succeeds US banker Bob Diamond who stepped down in July after the exposure of attempts by Barclays to rig the key interbank lending rate (Libor).

The bank was fined 290 million pounds ($460 million, 366 million euros) by domestic and US regulators over fiddling with the Libor number which sets the interest rate at which lenders can borrow from each other.

Jenkins became the head of Barclays' credit card business in 2006 and has been a member of the bank's executive committee since 2009.

Herculean task

Jenkins said in a statement Barclays had made mistakes and had to change its corporate culture. "Getting there will require nothing short of the transformation of how we operate our business," he said. "We have to do much, and look forward to getting started immediately."

Jenkins is expected to alter Barclays' former aggressive risk-taking strategies and pare back the investment wing of the lender.

Banking reform proposals made recently by the British government envisage a stricter separation between retail and investment banking, also with a view to ending excesses of the bonus culture among managers.

hg/pfd (Reuters, dpa)