Barclays hires former BofA executive Moulds as Group COO

By Anjuli Davies

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) has hired former Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive Jonathan Moulds for a newly created role as group chief operating officer, the British bank said on Wednesday.

Moulds, who will take up his role at the start of February, will report to Chief Executive Antony Jenkins, tasked with accelerating the bank's strategic plan, dubbed 'Transform', and overseeing the implementation of the ring-fenced bank in the UK.

Jenkins unveiled 'Transform' in February 2013, after taking the top job in 2012 in the wake of a series of scandals including the rigging of benchmark interest rates, in an attempt to convince investors and the public that the bank can put ethics above earnings.

He has since cut thousands of jobs, shrunk its investment bank and set up a 'bad bank' as part of his turnaround plan.

Britain wants banks such as Barclays to ring fence their retail units from their wholesale operations, including creating a separate board for their retail divisions that would be independent of the parent group.

"There are multiple major change programmes in flight across the Group, designed to achieve our ambitious goals, and which will in turn help to drive the sustainable returns our shareholders deserve," Jenkins said in a statement.

"A Group COO will give us additional leadership bandwidth and capability to make that happen."

Moulds, 49, spent more than 15 years at Bank of America (Swiss: BAC.SW - news) Merrill Lynch, most recently as Head (Other OTC: HEDYY - news) of its European business and CEO of Merrill Lynch International, before retiring in 2012.

Earlier in January, Eric Bommensath, a 17-year veteran of the bank who was tasked with leading the bad bank business, said he would leave at the end of the month. (Reporting by Anjuli Davies, editing by Louise Heavens)