Shares up at Barclays as bank sacks CEO Antony Jenkins

The bank said Antony Jenkins, who has led the bank since 2012, would be stepping aside, leaving its new chairman John McFarlane to take over executive duties until a permanent successor was appointed.

The shock decision came after the board decided new leadership was required to take the bank forward following a period of lacklustre results and uncertainty about the bank’s future structure.

While lauding Mr Jenkins’ role in steering the bank through a period of rapid change over the last three years, Deputy Chairman Michael Rake said the board had decided Mr Jenkins did not have the blend of skills required to take the company forward.

“We are leaving value on the table and a new approach is required. As a group, if we aspire to bring shareholder returns forward, we need to be much more focussed on what is attractive, what we are good at, and where we are good at it,” he said in a statement.

“We therefore need to improve revenue, costs and capital performance. We also need to become more externally focussed and deal with the internal bureaucracy by becoming leaner and more agile,” he added.

The bank said the change of leadership would not equate to a change in strategy at the bank.

Mr Jenkins leaves the bank with 12 months’ notice and will receive his current annual salary of £1.1m, £950,000 in role-based pay and a pension of £363,000 a year.

He became chief executive in summer 2012, replacing Bob Diamond, who left the bank in the wake of its involvement in the Libor scandal, which saw banks attempt to fix the key interest rate.

Mr Jenkins promised to bring a new culture of decency to the bank, although the lender now says it must improve its commercial performance.

He said: “In the summer of 2012, I became group chief executive at a particularly difficult time for Barclays. It is easy to forget just how bad things were three years ago both for our industry and even more so for us.”