London - Barclays' new boss has told staff they should leave
if they do not want to sign up to a set of standards aimed at rebuilding the
British bank's reputation after a string of scandals.
Antony Jenkins, who took over as chief executive at the end
of August after the bank was rocked by an interest rate rigging scandal, said
bonuses and performance would be assessed against a new "Purpose and
Values" blueprint.
"I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of you
... will enthusiastically support this move. But there might be some who don't
feel they can fully buy in to an approach which so squarely links performance
to the upholding of our values," Jenkins said in a memo to his 140 000 staff
on Thursday.
"My message to those people is simple: Barclays is not
the place for you. The rules have changed. You won't feel comfortable at
Barclays and, to be frank, we won't feel comfortable with you as
colleagues."
Barclays' reputation was hammered after it was fined £290m
in June for rigging Libor interest rates, which unearthed long-standing
concerns by Britain's financial regulator about its culture.
It and other UK banks were also tarnished by scandals
involving the mis-selling of financial products.
Jenkins, who took over after Bob Diamond stepped down in the
wake of the Libor scandal, said he was putting five values at the heart of his
plan: respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship.
He will unveil his strategic plans on February 12 - which he
said would "excite" staff on what the future holds - but he added
that setting new standards was equally important to the bank's long-term
success.
"The behavior which made those headlines in 2012 took
place in the past. But it helped underline how banking as a whole had lost its
way, and had lost touch with the values on which reputation and trust were
built," he said in the memo.
"Over a period of almost 20 years, banking became too
aggressive, too focused on the short-term, too disconnected from the needs of
our customers and clients, and wider society. We were not immune at Barclays
from these mistakes."
He said bankers pursued short-term profits at the expense of
the values and reputation of the organisation, and in the coming weeks more
than 1 000 staff would be trained to spread the new values and embed them
throughout the bank.
"Performance assessment will be based not just on what
we deliver but on how we deliver it. We must never again be in a position of
rewarding people for making the bank money in a way which is unethical or
inconsistent with our values," he said.
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