By dismissing the chief executive – who was endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury for his moral compass – the board is re-entering dangerous territory
How quickly halos lose their shine. Antony Jenkins – aka St Antony – found out last week, when he was fired from Barclays, how rapidly the mood can change. Only six months ago he had even won the endorsement of the Archbishop of Canterbury for his efforts to install a moral compass inside Barclays – a bank that caused such outrage when it was fined £290m for rigging Libor that the government had to launch a parliamentary commission on banking standards. Even the bailout of the banking sector in 2008 had not sparked such a public inspection of bankers’ ethics.
Jenkins’s job was to stop the wave of Barclays-bashing. Instead, he laid himself open to ridicule by installing huge clear blocks in the foyer of the headquarters emblazoned with the words respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship. We got management babble, such as his quest to create the “go-to bank”. His Transform programme was an acronym: Turnaround, Return Acceptable Numbers, Sustain FORward Momentum.
Barclays Capital generated billions of pounds in profits, but has also been the source of endless rows