Barclays has appointed Antony Jenkins as its new chief executive following the resignation of Bob Diamond over the Libor interest rate-fixing scandal.
The 51-year-old global retail CEO vacates his Barclays Retail and Business Banking role to take up the new post, with an annual salary of £1.1m and an annual incentive award of up to 250% of salary. He could also trouser an incentive bonus worth up to additional 400% of his salary.
However, any hopes that the appointment of British banking's 'Mr Nice' will be short-lived given the announcement that the Serious Fraud Office is investigating the bank.
Barclays has confirmed that the SFO is probing a series of payments in 2008 between it and Qatar Holding LLC, part of sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority.
The SFO has declined to disclose details of when its investigation into Barclays began, nor would it provide any clarity on which criminal laws the bank might be under scrutiny for. The fraud office would also not say whether its probe was being done in conjunction with any US-based enforcement agencies. It has however confirmed that investigations were continuing with direct liaison with the Financial Services Authority.
In June Barclays was hit with a £290m fine by the FSA and US regulators for its illegal manipulation the Libor interbank lending rate.
Jenkins said: 'We have made serious mistakes in recent years and clearly failed to keep pace with our stakeholders' expectations. We have an obligation to all of those stakeholders - customers, clients, shareholders, colleagues and broader society - and a unique opportunity to restore Barclays reputation by making it the 'go to' bank in all of our chosen markets. That journey will take time, we have much to do, and I look forward to getting started immediately.'
Jenkins kick started his finance career in 1983 when he completed the Barclays Management Development Programme before going on to hold various roles in retail and corporate banking. He moved to Citigroup in 1989, working in both London and New York.
Marcus Agius, Barclays outgoing chairman, said: 'The board ensured that the process to select the new chief executive was both rigorous and thorough. Antony stood out among a very competitive field of internal and external candidates because of his excellent track record transforming Barclaycard and Retail and Business Banking.'
Agius, who resigned as chairman following the Libor scandal, agreed to stay until a new chief executive was found. Sir David Walker will now replace him.
Jenkins previously ran Barclaycard's global operations and headed up Barclaycard's US outfit in 2007.