Barclays PLC fired its chief executive, Antony Jenkins, on Wednesday as the British investment bank seeks a new leader with a new set of skills to hasten cost cutting and profitability.
The bank announced the replacement of Jenkins, 53, by its Executive Chairman John McFarlane, 67, in a notice to the London Stock Exchange titled "Directorate Change."
McFarlane will take over Jenkins' post on July 17, when the former retires from FirstGroup and a new CEO will be announced on July 29, according to the notice.
The bank needs to improve revenue, costs and capital performance, according to McFarlane. "We also need to become more externally focused and deal with the internal bureaucracy by becoming leaner and more agile," McFarlane said in the notice.
"I reflected long and hard on the issue of Group leadership and discussed this with each of the Non-Executive Directors. Notwithstanding Antony's significant achievements, it became clear to all of us that a new set of skills were required for the period ahead. This does not take away from our appreciation of Antony's contribution at a critical time for the company," said the bank's board of directors led by Sir Michael Rake, deputy chairman and senior independent director.
The board and McFarlane expressed gratitude to Jenkins' effort to bring the company to a much stronger position under incredibly difficult circumstances in the past three years.
Jenkins thanked his colleagues for their support that allowed his program to achieve results.
"Our capital position is much stronger, our business model is more balanced, we are much more disciplined on cost management, we have made good progress in rebuilding our reputation and we are seen as a leader in the application of technology to our business," Jenkins said.
After replacing Robert Diamond as CEO in August 2012, Jenkins eliminated thousands of jobs and sold assets to prop up earnings hampered by tougher capital regulations and rising fines, but he failed to meet his return on equity target of 12 percent in 2014.
"The CEO has not acted fast enough on restructuring non-core and capital generation and that the group is too bureaucratic," said Joseph Dickerson, an analyst at Jefferies International Ltd., according to Bloomberg.
Analysts say deeper cost cutting was needed to meet profit targets.
News of Jenkins' ouster caused Barclays' shares to jump 3.3 percent and traded 3.1 percent higher at 8:30 a.m., according to the London Stock Exchange.
