Barclays boss Jes Staley quits after inquiry into links with Jeffrey Epstein

1 November 2021, 07:34 | Updated: 1 November 2021, 13:22

Jes Staley, the boss of Barclays, has stepped down from his role following an inquiry into his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Picture: Alamy

By Sophie Barnett

Jes Staley, the boss of Barclays, has announced he will step down with immediate effect following an investigation by regulators into his links with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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The bank's board said it is "disappointed" with the outcome of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) report into his links to the late private banker Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Staley, who has been the chief executive of the bank since 2015, worked with the late sex offender as part of his previous role at US giant JP Morgan.

The inquiry, launched by the FCA, has examined his "historical" links to paedophile Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, while Mr Staley ran the private banking arm of JP Morgan.

Barclays said it was made aware on Friday evening of the preliminary conclusions from the investigation, but did not go into details.

Mr Staley said he intends to contest the findings and the bank pointed out that the investigation makes no findings that he saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein's alleged crimes.

He will be replaced by the bank's head of global markets, Mr C S Venkatakrishnan, from today.

LBC's markets commentator David Buik said the inquiry has been in the background for a couple of years.

"He denied all knowledge of there being any importance or any relevance at all, and obviously this investigation has been very full and obviously the FCA has turned to Nigel Higgins, the group chairman of Barclays and said, I'm sorry, in the current circumstances this just won't do."

The report hasn't yet been made public.

This story is being updated