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Jes Staley has didn’t overturn a call by the Monetary Conduct Authority that he “recklessly” misled the regulator about his ties to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a significant setback to the previous chief govt of Barclays.
In a judgment handed down on Thursday by the Higher Tribunal, Decide Timothy Herrington stated Staley’s behaviour represented a “critical failure of judgment” and he had “acted with out integrity” by approving a deceptive letter from the financial institution to its regulator.
The decide, nevertheless, ordered that the £1.8mn advantageous imposed on Staley by the regulator be lowered by 40 per cent to replicate the truth that Barclays had not allowed him to obtain deferred shares that he was entitled to.
The previous Barclays boss had mounted a authorized problem towards the ban and advantageous imposed on him by the FCA in 2023, with a high-profile trial happening in March.
Herrington discovered that Staley had accepted a Barclays letter to regulators that he knew contained inaccuracies over the character of his relationship with Epstein, and that Staley’s “conduct was such that it may have resulted in confidence within the monetary system being adversely affected”.
The judgment additionally discovered that Staley had “proven no regret for his conduct”.
On the coronary heart of the dispute had been two representations made by Barclays in a letter the financial institution despatched to regulators in October 2019, which said that Staley “didn’t have an in depth relationship” with Epstein and that they final communicated “nicely earlier than he joined Barclays in 2015”.
The FCA opened an investigation into Staley two months later, after his former employer JPMorgan Chase advised the regulator it had a trove of paperwork relating to his relationship with Epstein, which the FCA compelled the US financial institution at hand over.
“We now have famous Mr Staley’s achievements as chief govt of Barclays, however in our view these don’t diminish the seriousness of the misconduct,” the judgment learn. “The lack of his long-standing profession is an inevitable consequence of that conduct.”
A request to Staley’s lawyer to remark was not instantly returned. Barclays declined to remark.
Therese Chambers, joint govt director of enforcement and market oversight on the FCA, stated Staley had taken “a calculated threat” and “hoped that the reality would by no means come to gentle and that he would get away with it”. She added: “Such a critical lack of integrity flies within the face of the necessities we place on these on the prime.”