Barclays has restructured its legal team in preparation for ring-fencing reforms that will split the bank’s retail and investment arms.
In a reorganisation led by the bank’s chief executive, Jes Staley, two new divisions have been created: Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate & International. The bank’s group general counsel (GC), Bob Hoyt, will take on an additional role as GC for Corporate & International. Mark Chapman was appointed as GC of Barclays UK in March.
Reporting directly to Hoyt in his new role as legal head of Corporate & International will be Richard Hickson as GC for Barclaycard and Anjali Chhania as GC for the corporate bank. Mark Shelton will continue in his role as legal head for the investment bank and the Americas.
At Barclays UK, Chapman’s senior team comprises David McCahon as GC for personal banking, Helen Oldfield as GC for the newly-established wealth, entrepreneurs and business banking, Benjamin Frarin La Michellaz as head of legal in Europe and Rob Dinning as GC for operations and technology legal.
Shelton and Hickson will have joint accountability for the legal support to the Barclaycard UK consumer card issuing business, supported by the regulated products and Barclaycard legal teams.
Hickson and Chhania will also continue to participate in Chapman’s leadership team, as well as directly reporting to Hoyt.
The restructure comes amid the bank’s ongoing panel review, which will see law firms compete for places on Barclays’ legal roster for the next two years. It is being led by Stéphanie Hamon, the bank’s head of commercial management, who was drafted in last December to run the procurement process.
Barclays set aside £1bn in October to meet the costs of the Bank of England’s ring-fencing rules, requiring banks to separate their retail arms from more risky investment banking divisions. The post-Lehman reforms are intended to make it easier to contain problems in the banking sector.
Barclays’ shake-up comes as its rival UK banks gear up for equivalent reforms. Lloyds Banking Group in March appointed former Berwin Leighton Paisner partner Frances McLeman to oversee its ring-fencing process.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
For more on the impact of ring-fencing reforms, see the Finance View
