So the new boss at Barclays has made a statement in the form of a foreword to the bank's "strategic review".
http://group.barclays.com/Satellite?blobco...2&ssbinary=trueMr Jenkins (for that is his name) says he recognises that "banking lost its way in recent years". I love that: they sound like babes in the wood, all innocent and orphaned and not at all to blame.
He says they were "putting short term profit ahead of long term interests" and I love that as well. I was wondering about the implied distinction between "profit" and "interests": the implication is that interests might include someone other than the bank: but it does not say so. Perhaps it is a typo and he meant to write "interest" ? Interest is something bankers know about: interests, if taken to include what might be good for anyone outside the bank, not so much.
But for me the phrase could be more honestly rendered as: "putting theft of all the money in the world ahead of any idea of not ruining millions of lives across the world"
He goes on to say " We have defined our purpose as helping people.. to achieve their ambitions in the right way". Presumably that is the sole purpose of making 3,700 redundant? They have all been individually assessed and the best help that can be offered is unemployment benefit? He says on the back of this that he "wants them to choose Barclays". Well admittedly a lot of those staff might have chosen "banking" or "a job" rather than specifically choosing Barclays: but somehow I am not sure that is the real problem
Mr Jenkins says there "can be no conflict between good results and good values". Can there not? I accept there need not be: but cannot be? I rather think the history of the financial crisis shows that he is telling fibs.
Then there is the excruciating way he tells us about their "rigorous programme of work" to "Transform" (new buzz word for them) the bank: the elements are
1. Turnaround: which I take it means reverse the fall in profit
2. Return Acceptable Numbers: which I take it means reverse the fall in profit
3. Sustain Forward Momentum: which I take it means increase profit
Much of the fall in profit is due to fines and liabilities due to misselling of PPI: they are high and they are of the bank's own making. I understand that the share of profit going to executives and staff is to fall from 42% of company income to 38%, which if you read it quickly looks like Mr Jenkins might get a pay cut: but then there are those 3,700 people who are losing their jobs: that might account for some of that.... It is certainly not obvious to me how any of this piffle represents a "new values driven culture and direction"
