Yahoo Finance New Barclays Chair To Join Treasury Taskforce
The new chairman of Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) is to join a Government taskforce charged with promoting British finance just days after he ousted the bank's chief executive.
Sky News has learnt that John McFarlane will on Monday be named as a new member of the Treasury's Financial Services Trade and Investment Board (FSTIB).
Mr McFarlane's appointment will come less than a fortnight after he orchestrated the removal of Antony Jenkins as Barclays' boss and was installed as the lender's executive chairman.
The reshuffle has sparked concern among some investors and regulators about the amount of power that Mr McFarlane will wield over one of the UK's largest banks.
It prompted the Prudential Regulation Authority to write to Barclays on Friday to urge it to conduct a speedy search for Mr Jenkins' successor and to retain deputy chairman Sir Mike Rake until that appointment is made.
Mr McFarlane's recruitment by George Osborne as an external member of the FSTIB's board is unlikely to provoke anxiety about the impact on his time commitment to Barclays, although he has also recently agreed to chair TheCityUK, the lobby group for the financial services sector.
City sources said on Sunday that Helena Morrissey, who runs Newton Investment Management and has spearheaded the drive for greater gender diversity in British boardrooms, and Santander UK's chief executive, Nathan Bostock, would also be named as FSTIB members.
As Sky News revealed earlier this month, Douglas Flint, the chairman of HSBC, is among the FSTIB directors stepping down from the panel.
Sources said such a move was logical in the context of HSBC's decision to conduct a review of whether it should relocate its headquarters offshore.
A decision is due to be made by the bank by the end of the year.
A source previously told Sky News that it would be "embarrassing" for Mr Osborne if an adviser on the UK’s competitiveness as a financial services centre was one of the prime movers behind one of the world's biggest lenders quitting London.
Mr Osborne announced a restructuring of the Bank Levy in this month's Budget in what was widely interpreted as a move to persuade HSBC to retain its headquarters in the UK.
HSBC is by far the biggest contributor to the levy in its current form, but its liability should fall sharply when it is recalibrated to apply solely to banks' UK balance sheets.
Nevertheless, the levy is not the only determinant of HSBC's eventual decision, which many people close to the bank still regard as hanging in the balance.
The FSTIB's other City representatives since it was set up in 2013 include Ana Botin, who has moved from running Santander UK to its Spanish parent, and will also step down from the Treasury body.
In a Treasury-led productivity plan published this month, ministers reaffirmed the importance of the FSTIB in ensuring that "government departments and industry work in close partnership to promote trade and investment in priority markets such as China, India and Brazil, and priority sectors, such as Islamic finance, FinTech, insurance and reinsurance and investment management".
It added that it wanted UK financial services to "remain globally competitive" and said it would issue new letters reflecting that remit to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and PRA.
The hardline chief executive of the FCA, Martin Wheatley, was effectively sacked by Mr Osborne last week, with the Chancellor saying that the time had come for "different leadership".
The Treasury declined to comment on Sunday on the FSTIB's relaunch.
