Following the exit of Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) (LON:BARC) Chief Executive Officer Bob Diamond, the British bank’s Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier also resigned from his position effective immediately amid the Libor scandal.
Pressured by the interest rate-rigging scandal, Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius was the first to quit last Sunday (July 29). The third largest bank admitted its involvement in manipulating the setting of London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), the benchmark used to set prices of derivatives and other financial products worth $350 trillion.
Commenting on Missier’s resignation, “”Jerry played a pivotal role in many of Barclays standout successes during the last 15 years, including his extraordinary contributions as part of the leadership team that built the investment bank,” said Agius.
Missiers resignation put more pressure for Barclay’s to immediately hire an external candidate to replace Diamond as Chief Executive Officer. Financial analysts believe that is very important for the bank to appoint someone who is not associated with Diamond to restore its image and integrity but finding someone would be difficult due to the scandal.
Gary Greenwood, banking analyst from Shore Capital said, “It’s of paramount importance that an external appointment is made in order to clean up the image of the company. The question now will be who will come in to replace Mr Diamond and whether further senior heads will roll?”
Stephane Rambosson, Managing Partner of Veni Partners London, an executive research firm also commented about the situation. According to him, “It’s going to be very difficult to find a candidate that ticks the boxes. There are very few internal candidates and if you look externally what is Barclays offering? A huge amount of responsibility and scrutiny over pay at a bank with no clear contingency plan.’’
Cormac Leech, analyst ar Liberum Capital Ltd. in London suggests that Bill Winters, for CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). is a good fit to serve as the next Barclay’s CEO. Winters is a member of the Independent Commission on Banking. Another analyst suggests that Stephen Hester, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc is also an ideal candidate.
