Spat with Barclays CEO ends as Tom King, Head of investment banking division bows out, heads for retirement
Tom King, CEO of Barclays Investment Bank has announced his retirement, which will become effective as of March 4 this year. After 25 years with the firm, Mr. King has been at senior level within the investment banking division of Barclays PLC (LON:BARC), and has made a public statement with regard to his retirement, stating: […]
Tom King, CEO of Barclays Investment Bank has announced his retirement, which will become effective as of March 4 this year.
After 25 years with the firm, Mr. King has been at senior level within the investment banking division of Barclays PLC (LON:BARC), and has made a public statement with regard to his retirement, stating:
“After nearly 25 years in my career, and having now seen the Investment Bank through a period of extraordinary change and on to a solid footing for the future, I feel the moment is right for me to pass the baton. I am so proud of what we have achieved together at Barclays through what has been a hugely challenging period, and I shall leave the firm with fond memories of great clients and great colleagues.”
Popular opinion suggests that Mr. King had been engaged in an internal strugle during the past year with regard to the future direction of the firm’s investment banking operations, having been at loggerheads with Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins to the point of expressing his intention to resign in the summer of 2015 during a disagreement with Mr. Jenkins on the subject.
Barclays announced in January this year via memorandums to staff and clients that it intends to close its cash equities business in Asia, and close down its investment banking operations in a number of countries worldwide which could lead to over 1,000 staff redunancies.
In 2014, Barclays announced that it had been looking at reducing its global payroll by a remarkable 19,000, with 4,000 redundancies being from within its investment banking division.
In an official memo which was released on Friday, Mr. King stated
“After nearly 25 years in my career, and having now seen the investment bank through a period of extraordinary change and on to a solid footing for the future, I feel the moment is right for me to pass the baton.”
At a time during which many interbank FX dealers are experiencing substantial downturns in revenues and are looking to make cost savings, Mr. King’s decision to move on is poignant indeed.
