Probe Barclays board for Jeffrey Epstein failures

The City keeper is under increasing pressure to investigate the Barclays board over how it appointed and then stood behind former chief executive Jess Staley during the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

City and Westminster figures said the Financial Conduct Authority should investigate the board’s conduct and why it did not question Mr Staley more thoroughly about his relationship with the convicted sex offender during his six-year tenure at the helm of the bank.

A particular focus is on Barclays chairman Nigel Higgins, who took over in May 2019. Higgins was chairman when a letter was sent from Barclays to the regulator in October 2019 which contained a number of “misleading” claims about Staley’s relationship with Epstein.

In the letter, Barclays said that Staley did not have a close relationship with Epstein and that his last contact was well before he joined Barclays in 2015.

Probe: City and Westminster figures said Financial Conduct Authority must look into board conduct

In reality, Staley considered Epstein one of his “deepest” and “dearest” friends and had been in contact with the sex offender three days before his appointment to the top job at Barclays. Fining Staley £1.8m this week and banning him from working at the City for life, the FCA described the letter as “misleading”.

Higgins and other Barclays board members now face questions about why they did not investigate Staley more seriously.

MP Harriet Baldwin, chair of the finance committee, said: “The Barclays board has questions to answer.”

Higgins is also under pressure to stand by Staley despite constant warning signs. In December 2019, Barclays launched its own internal review, which concluded that Staley had been sufficiently transparent with executives.

That same month, Higgins was called to meet Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England at the time, who told Higgins to consider Staley’s position.

And Barclays was still hanging on to its chief executive in February 2020 when the Financial Conduct Authority opened its investigation into Staley. Staley did not leave office until November 2021. There are also question marks surrounding Staley’s appointment.

The American was hired in October 2015 by Barclays chairman John Macfarlane and head of the nominations committee Sir Michael Rake. Three days before he was officially appointed chief executive, the Mail on Sunday revealed that notorious pedophile Epstein was backing his bid for the top job.