Barclays has appointed banking and insurance veteran John McFarlane as its new chairman to oversee the British bank's efforts to stamp out wrongdoing and improve performance. McFarlane, a Scot, will step down as chairman of British insurer Aviva and take the Barclays hot seat in April. Aviva said Adrian Montague would take over as its chairman, also in April. He has previously been chairman of UK life insurer Friends Provident and British Energy.
Barclays has been searching for a strong replacement for David Walker, who is 74 and been chairman since November 2012. With Chief Executive Antony Jenkins he has tried to improve culture after a series of scandals - including the mis-selling of loan insurance and the attempted manipulation of Libor interest rates - raised concern about lax standards. McFarlane, 67, was chief executive of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) for 10 years until 2007 and has been Aviva's chairman since July 2012, making some tough decisions to turn around an underperforming business.
He took over the full-time running of the insurer in May 2012 after an investor revolt saw off CEO Andrew Moss. McFarlane delivered a damning assessment of Moss's five years in charge and vowed "to regain the respect of shareholders by eliminating the discount in our share price". He appointed Mark Wilson as chief executive, who has overseen an improvement in the insurer's performance.
"My perception is he's down to earth and a pretty tough operator with a lot of international experience. It looks like a good choice," said Mike Trippitt, analyst at Numis Securities. Barclays is in the midst of its own turnaround, as CEO Jenkins tries to improve profitability by shrinking the bank to slash costs and axe underperforming units and reduce its reliance on investment banking. McFarlane last year told Reuters there were not many people who could run a big British bank due to the increased regulatory demands on the role.
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