Barclays share price: Bank poaches another JPMorgan executive

Barclays (LON:BARC) CEO Jes Staley, a former senior banker at JPMorgan Chase, has poached another executive from his former US employer. The British lender yesterday announced the appointment of Paul Compton as group chief operating officer, following the departure of Jonathan Moulds, a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive who was hired just 13 months ago.

Compton will join Barclays in May and will be responsible for operations and technology, structural reform, cost transformation, major project delivery, administration, corporate real estate services and sourcing. He will also chair the group operating committee. “For nearly twenty years Mr Compton has served in a variety of senior operating roles. His huge directly relevant experience will prove invaluable as we continue our strategic transformation and manage the required changes under structural reform,” CEO Staley said.

Compton is the second JPMorgan veteran to join Barclays in the last two weeks. The bank announced last month that C. S. Venkatakrishnan, the head of operational risk at JPMorgan, would join the bank as its chief risk officer in May.
It has been a year of major changes in personnel at the top of Barclays. Chairman John McFarlane took charge in April 2015 and sacked former chief executive Antony Jenkins in the summer, before hiring Staley in December. Structural changes are also reshaping the group, which last month revealed it is cutting back its investment bank’s cash equities business in Asia and closing offices across parts of the continent, as well as in Brazil and Russia.
Barclays’ share price has inched up today following a sell-off yesterday. By 08:28 GMT, the stock had gained 0.70 percent to 157.20p. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 index had eased 0.05 percent to stand at 5,629.53 points.
As of 08:41 GMT, Wednesday, 10 February, Barclays share price is 156.25p.