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In time-honoured fashion, the new head of Barclays’ corporate and investment bank has spent his first few months in the job observing the structure he inherited to see if it works. Having joined from JPMorgan at the start of the year, Tim Throsby thinks he has now figured out where change is needed.
Insiders in London and New York talk of an evolution rather than a revolution, but Throsby’s rejig of the banking and markets businesses in May is nonetheless instructive.
The changes in banking, where he has appointed a global head, reverse what always looked like an ambitious overstretch in Europe; they address the need to treat the firm’s corporate bank properly and they reflect the fact that global clients need a global approach. Dozens more staff are also expected to be hired across the investment bank.
What is going on in the markets division is less clear. The existing head has been moved out of day-to-day management and Throsby is taking control – for now. Given Throsby’s existing workload as head of Barclays International, which is made up of more than the corporate and investment bank, the working assumption internally is that he will be handing this burden over just as soon as he is sure how he wants it run and has found the right person to do it.
