Barclays chief set to scale back investment banking

The new boss of British lender Barclays wants to shrink its investment bank division as he seeks to move on from rate-rigging and mis-selling scandals, he indicated in an interview published on Sunday. Chief executive Antony Jenkins told The Sunday Times newspaper that there was "no doubt" that tough banking sector regulations would "make some activities in investment banking difficult to make an adequate return on". He added that profits would be hit by British plans to force banks to ringfence their retail activities. At the same time, Europe's major banks will also be forced to hold more cash as a buffer against any other financial crises, under looming Basel III rules. "There are a number of external factors coming down the line and regulation is clearly a very powerful one," Jenkins told The Sunday Times. In a separate interview, the new Barclays chief added that he wanted to do more "listening than talking" as he seeks to turn the group's fortunes around. "I'm going to spend a lot of time with external shareholders. I'll be listening a lot more than I'm talking. That's an important way of operating," he told the Sunday Telegraph. "I want to hear what's on investors' minds. If they've got concerns about how we run the bank, then I would anticipate we'll change the way we do business." Jenkins, formerly Barclays' retail and business banking boss, was appointed chief executive last Thursday with immediate effect. He replaced US national Bob Diamond who resigned in July over the notorious Libor rate-rigging scandal. As well as the Libor case, which has cost the bank £290 million ($460 million; 366 million euros) in fines, Barclays has been involved in the payment protection insurance scandal and the mis-selling of interest rate swaps to businesses. In another heavy blow, Barclays revealed last week that the Serious Fraud Office was probing payments made to Qatar Holding, which it tapped for funds at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis to avoid part-nationalisation.