Results tagged “John Varley”

One of Barclays most senior bankers has been named as an ambassador for east London HIV charity Positive East.

Antony Jenkins, Barclays' retail and business banking chief executive, will have a key role in promoting Barclays' staff involvement in the charity's activities and raising awareness of HIV in the workplace.

Barclays chief executive designate Bob Diamond will officially take up his role on New Year's Day - three months earlier than originally planned.

The bank announced this morning that Mr Diamond will succeed outgoing chief executive John Varley on January 1 after all transition activities were successfully completed.

Bob Diamond is to take over as group chief executive of Barclays from next March.

Mr Diamond, who is currently chief executive of Barclays Capital - the bank's investment arm - will replace John Varley from March 31. He will become president and deputy group chief executive from October 1.

Barclays Bank has announced half-year profits of almost £4billion.

The banking group, based in Canary Wharf, announced this morning that it had made pre-tax profits of £3.95billion - a rise of 44 per cent on the same period last year.

Barclays recorded a big jump in profits last year despite the recession.

The bank posted a year-end profit of £11.6billion before tax, an increase of 92 per cent on its 2008 figure. Most of that came from the £6.3billion sale of Barclays Global Investors and a strong performance from investment arm Barclays Capital.

Barclays has defied expectations to post a profit of £6.1billion for the whole of 2008.

However, the bank, based at Canary Wharf, said on Monday morning it would halve bonus payments as it prepares for a tough year ahead.

Barclays' bosses braved the wrath of shareholders today to explain why the bank needed to raise almost £6billion of capital from new investors.

The bank's chairman Marcus Agius told a general meeting of shareholders at Excel today failure to secure the promise of funds from the Middle East could have proved "terminal".

Barclays is to raise £7.3billion from middle eastern investors to avoid being bailed out by the Government.

A deal was announced today between the Churchill Place-based bank and investors from Qatar and Abu Dhabi, among others, which will see around a third of Barclays pass into foreign ownership.