London - Barclays has appointed Hector Sants, former boss of
British regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to oversee its
compliance and relationship with governments and regulators as it looks to repair
its battered reputation.
Barclays said Sants will oversee compliance activities
across the bank in all the regions in which it does business. The appointment
marks a change to the bank's structure with all compliance staff reporting to
one individual for the first time.
Sants in turn will report directly to Chief Executive Antony
Jenkins, who is overhauling the bank after it was fined £290m ($46m) by
regulators investigating the manipulation of Libor and other key interest
rates. The affair led to the departure of the previous CEO, Bob Diamond.
Jenkins said the appointment of Sants underlined his
commitment to creating a culture at Barclays where compliance is "universally
welcomed and observed".
Barclays said Sants will be responsible for ensuring the
conduct of staff is consistent with the bank's values, "as well as the
spirit and letter of the law and the expectations of regulators in the geographies
where Barclays operates.
"With a huge wealth of private and public sector
experience and having most recently led one of the world's pre-eminent
regulatory authorities, I can think of no more suitably qualified person than
Hector Sants to take on these challenges", Jenkins said in a statement on
Wednesday.
Last month the bank's current head of compliance, Mike
Walters, told British lawmakers examining bank standards that he didn't believe
it was the responsibility of Barclay's compliance function to make the bank
compliant. "Complying is part of the culture but compliance is the
responsibility of everyone at Barclays," he said.
Walters will take up the new role of managing director for
conduct and risk following Sants' appointment on January 21.
Sants stepped down as chief executive of the FSA in June and
had also held talks with accountancy firm Deloitte, as a welter of new
financial industry rules has put expertise in regulation at a premium.
The FSA is being scrapped in April as part of a shake-up of
supervision that will make the Bank of England the main banking supervisor.
That has triggered a string of departures from the FSA for the deep pockets of
the private sector.
Margaret Cole, former head of enforcement, left earlier this
year to join PricewaterhouseCoopers. Jon Pain left last year to work for KPMG,
while Thomas Huertas, a former FSA banking supervisor, is now part of Ernst
& Young's regulatory team.
Barclays did not provide details of Sants' pay. He was paid
£836 000 by the FSA for the 2011/12 financial year.