Barclays culture

Today Barclays has released Antony Jenkins the CEO, business parlance for incompatibility.

Antony Jenkins had been in his position for three years since Bob Diamond left, the charismatic character that was pressured out after failing to convince a commons select committee of his morals, following controversy over manipulation of Libor interest rates by traders employed by the bank.

Antony Jenkins started by making a statement to the staff something similar to [staff should quit the bank if they do not want to sign up to a set of standards aimed at rebuilding the bank's reputation] after a string of scandals.

He pointed out that over a period of almost 20 years, banking became too aggressive, too focused on the short-term, too disconnected from the needs of their customers and clients, and the wider society, also performance assessment will be based not just on what they deliver but on how they deliver it. They must never again be in a position of rewarding people for making the bank money in a way which is unethical or inconsistent with his new values.

Obviously this has not gone down well with the old guard within Barclays as Antony Jenkins walks out today. Perhaps the people investing with Barclays might like to take stock of the current situation and the way the world is moving away from these pre-historic ideas of greed is good.