Barclays reorganizes management of investment bank
LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays announced a number of promotions in its investment bank's management on Friday, while it continues with a review of the division that contributes about half of the group's total profits.
The British lender said in a statement that it had appointed Eric Felder as head of markets, a position that gives him supervision of the investment bank's global sales and trading businesses across all asset classes.
Felder, who joined Barclays from now-defunct U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008, was previously co-head of securities.
In addition Joe McGrath and Richard Taylor were named as co-heads of banking, responsible for the investment bank's global corporate finance and strategic advisory units.
A former Goldman Sachs banker, McGrath was most recently a co-head of the global finance and risk solutions business. Taylor, who has in the past worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC , was head of investment banking in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
All three report to Eric Bommensath and Tom King, the joint chief executives of corporate and investment banking at Barclays. Hitherto Bommensath had also been head of markets, while King was responsible for banking.
Barclays' chief executive, Antony Jenkins, has embarked on the third review of the investment bank in as many years in response to pressure to cut costs and improve returns.
Analysts predict this might lead to a cut in the investment bank's size of up to 20 percent. This would equate to about 5,000 jobs going out of 26,000 and could strip out about 900 million pounds in annual compensation costs.
In its statement Barclays said the promotions "strengthens the management team and positions the Investment Bank for the next stage of evolution".
The bank said it will present a strategic update on May 8.
(Reporting by Clare Hutchison; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
