Tom Burroughes
Group Editor
12 December 2012
Daily News Analysis
Barclays, which earlier this year was hit with a fine totaling £290 million ($468 million) and whose chief executive Bob Diamond resigned over the LIBOR-rigging scandal, has brought in a former top UK regulator, Hector Sants, to the newly-formed role of head of compliance and government and regulatory relations.
Sants, who takes up the post on January 21 next year, reports to group chief executive Antony Jenkins.
He has previously been CEO of the UK’s Financial Services Authority, a post he held from 2007 to June 2012; in 2010, he was appointed deputy governor designate of the Bank of England and CEO designate of the Prudential Regulation Authority. Sants’ other high-profile roles have included CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston, EMEA, and head of equities at UBS.
The appointment of such a prominent regulator and banker underscores how seriously the UK-listed banking group is trying to draw a line under the interbank-rigging scandal that saw a number of top executives depart. A number of other banks, meanwhile, have been investigated by the authorities in both the US and UK over the affair. The scandal has also prompted calls for changes to how interbank interest rates – the basis for many financial products such as mortgages – are set in the future.
“In this role, Mr Sants will oversee all compliance activities across Barclays, including all regions in which Barclays does business. In a major change this will mean, for the first time, that all compliance staff within the bank report to one individual, and operate independent of business and regional management teams,” the bank said in a statement today on its website.
The bank said that Sants will take on responsibility for its relations with governments and regulators around the world.
“In appointing this new senior role and making these structural reporting line changes, I want to do two things. The principal one is to create the conditions whereby a world-class compliance function can flourish, and the second is to send a clear signal of intent in terms of my personal commitment to delivering a culture in Barclays where compliance is universally welcomed and observed,” Jenkins said in the statement.
