Barclays' Staley to step down after Epstein probe
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Monday 01 Nov 2021
(Sharecast News) - Barclays chief executive Jes Staley is standing down with immediate effect after a probe by UK financial regulators into his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The bank said it had been given sight of the Financial Conduct Authority's and Prudential Regulatory Authority's conclusions on Friday and was "disappointed" at the outcome, adding that Staley had run Barclays "with real commitment and skill" since he started in December 2015.
"In view of those (FCA) conclusions, and Mr Staley's intention to contest them, the board and Mr Staley have agreed that he will step down from his role as group chief executive and as a director of Barclays," Barclays said in a statement.
Barclays said C.S. Venkatakrishnan - known as ' Venkat', and another former JPMorgan executive - will take over as group chief executive immediately.
The investigation was started in February 2020 into Staley's characterisation of his dealings with Epstein after emails between the two men were handed to the UK regulators by their US counterparts. Staley worked with Epstein during his time at JP Morgan.
"It should be noted that the investigation makes no findings that Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein's alleged crimes, which was the central question underpinning Barclays' support for Mr Staley following the arrest of Mr Epstein in the summer of 2019."
"The regulatory process still has to run its full course and it is not appropriate for Barclays to comment further on the preliminary conclusions."
CEO NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY
Barclays added that it has had succession planning in hand "for some time" and had identified him as its preferred candidate for the role more than a year ago as he was moved to head the bank's Global Markets division.
Epstein in 2008 was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. He was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York but was found dead in his jail cell on August 10, 2019. His death was officially ruled a suicide.
Staley was previously an executive at US merchant bank JP Morgan where Epstein was already a client and while he said contact with the disgraced financier had started to "taper off" from about 2013, regulators decided to look into whether emails between the duo indicated a friendlier connection.
Staley has already admitted he maintained contact with Epstein for about seven years after his 2008 conviction and it is also known he visited a retreat owned by Epstein in the US Virgin Islands in 2015.
"Obviously I thought I knew him well and I didn't. For sure, with hindsight with what we know now, I deeply regret having any relationship with Jeffrey," he said last year.
It is not Staley's first time under the spotlight, In December 2018 his attempts to unmask a whistleblower at the bank landed Barclays with $15m fine by a New York regulator.
The UK's financial watchdogs fined Staley £642,430 for "failing to act with due skill, care and diligence" over the incident, in which an anonymous letter was sent to the board over the hiring of Tim Main as head of the bank's financial institutions group in New York.
Staley tried to track down the author of the letters using the bank's internal security unit. The New York regulator said the CEO was trying to protect a senior executive, who was a friend and former colleague at JP Morgan.
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