Barclays nabs JPMorgan’s Throsby to head investment bank

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Barclays (BARC.L) has hired JPMorgan (JPM.N) banker Tim Throsby to head its Corporate and International division, ending a six-month search for the number two job under Chief Executive Jes Staley.

Throsby, 50, will also run Barclays’ investment banking business within that division, filling the gap left by the departure of Tom King who retired from the bank in March.

Subject to regulatory approvals, Throsby is expected to take up his new role in January, Barclays said. Staley has been running the division himself while the bank searched for a replacement.

King’s exit had been rumored for some months prior to his departure. The investment bank chief threatened to quit last summer during a row with the then CEO Antony Jenkins over the future of the division, people familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time.

King’s departure came as Staley announced the creation of Barclays’ corporate and international division as part of a new strategy focused on the United States and Britain.

This saw the bank divided into two units, Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate and International, to comply with ring-fencing regulations aimed at safeguarding its retail banking business from riskier operations.

Income from Barclays’ investment banking division fell 5 percent in the first six months of this year, as it suffered from industry-wide problems including declining client trading, increased regulatory costs and persistently low interest rates.

Barclays ranked 7th among banks worldwide advising on mergers in the first half of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data, 4th for debt deals and 9th for equity financing.

The bank’s shares are down 20 percent so far this year, after suffering their worst single-day drop on record following Britain’s vote to exit the EU on June 23.

Throsby, an Australian, joined JPMorgan in 2010 as global head of equity derivatives before being promoted to global head of equities in September 2012. He has also worked for Credit Suisse, Macquarie, Citadel Asia and Lehman Brothers.

He joins a number of JPMorgan alumni recruited by Staley, who was himself CEO of the U.S. lender’s investment bank before leaving JPMorgan in 2013 and joining Barclays in December last year.

Former JPMorgan bankers now in senior roles at Barclays include finance director Tushar Morzaria, chief information officer Mark Ashton-Rigby, chief operating officer Paul Compton, and chief risk officer CS Venkatakrishnan.