Jenkins puts his mouth where his money is

31 Oct 2012

Barclays Bank plans to review its core values and come up with ethics that would become the foundation of its future conduct chief executive Anthony Jenkins said last week as he pushed forward in a bid to repair the bank's soiled image after the interest rate fixing scandal.

Jenkins‚ promoted to the top position at the listed UK global bank following the resignation of Bob Diamond‚ spoke of the planned review when he addressed the One Young World summit last week in Pittsburgh.

The summit‚ which was attended by 44 delegates from South Africa‚ brings together the brightest young people from around the world. It will be held in South Africa next year.

According to remarks released by the organisers‚ Jenkins said Barclays‚ the majority owner of JSE-listed banking group Absa‚ wanted to focus on sustainable shareholder value instead of chasing short-term glory.

Jenkins spoke as Absa‚ majority-owned by Barclays‚ on Monday advised shareholders to continue exercising caution until further details were released on a major deal to transfer some African assets owned by Barclays to Absa for an undisclosed amount.

The deal‚ which requires approval from regulators and shareholders‚ would make Absa the second South African bank with a large footprint in sub-Saharan Africa after Standard Bank.

Absa said discussions were progressing and advised shareholders to continue exercising caution when dealing in its shares pending a further announcement.

In his remarks‚ Jenkins said no organisation could preach about sustainable shareholder value by chasing short-term profits. He said shareholder value came from the sustainability of the enterprise in its broadest terms.

Barclays was this year fined £290m by British and US regulators for its role in manipulating the Libor and Euribor rates.

This led to the resignation of Diamond and Barclays chairman Marcus Agius as well as its chief operating officer Jerry Del Missier.

Jenkins said the planned review of Barclays's ethics policy would be completed by the end of the year.

"What that's really about is setting goals‚ targets‚ metrics for each of our stakeholders‚ for our customers and clients and for our colleagues. We will do all that work and get that done by the end of the year‚" he said.

He said he doubted whether Barclays currently shared a common vision on ethical behaviour across the group.

Jenkins said the swift action taken by Barclays after it was fined was the most tangible action by the bank to demonstrate to investors it wanted to restore its battered reputation.

"So‚ the sort of visible‚ tangible‚ example of what happens when a business does not serve all of its stakeholders became very personal for me‚ and then‚ two months later‚ I was asked to lead Barclays as group chief executive. So now I have to put my words into action and you can hold me accountable for that‚" Jenkins added.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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