Barclays Names Former FSA Chief As Compliance Head

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Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) (NYSE:BCS) announced on Wednesday that Hector Sants will be with the bank next year, as compliance head. Hector Sants is the former chief executive of Financial Service Authority, where he had worked for eight years. The bank, through the appointment of a new Compliance head, looks forward to repairing its relationship with investors, regulators, and the broader public after the series of issues regarding its hand in the LIBOR scandal.

Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) (NYSE:BCS) settled for the fine of a record $468 million (290 million pounds) in June, for manipulating LIBOR (London interbank offer rate) and Euro interbank offer rates. The chief executive, Robert Diamond, departed from the bank in the aftermath of the scandal. Since then, chairman Marcus Agius and Chief operating officer Jerry Del Missier are trying to refurbish the culture of the bank.

The Bank said that Sants will join Barclay’s executive committee on January 21st, 2013, and report to the chief executive,  Antony Jenkins. Hector Sants left the U.K. financial regulator in the end of June.

“I left the FSA with the intention of finding a role which would allow me to put into practice the experience I have gained in both the public and private sector,” Sants said in today’s statement. Mr. Sants said that the position is an opportunity to apply his experience. The job of Sants will be to supervise the global compliance activities and serve as the chief for dealing with government regulators across the globe.

Sants in June 2010, while working with FSA, warned Agius the regulator had concerns about whether Rich Ricci, who was appointed in place of Diamond as CEO of Barclay’s investment banking unit, has “the depth of skills” to supervise the operations along with co-CEO Del Missier. The plan of Barclays to save Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc by buying some of it assets failed when Sants blocked the attempt of Barclays.

Though Sants declared his departure from FSA in February 2010, he decided to stay on after the government planned to delegate supervisory powers to the Bank of England. He again resigned in the month of March. Sants has also worked as an executive at Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS), where he managed the Bank’s European, Middle East, and Asian business.

Apart from Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) (NYSE:BCS), other U.K. banks, including HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE:HBC) (LON:HSBA) and Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN) (LON:STAC) are also planning new compliance efforts.

Chief Executive Antony Jenkins said the appointment of Mr. Sants should “send a clear signal of intent in terms of my personal commitment to delivering a culture in Barclays where compliance is universally welcomed and observed”.

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