Barclays has appointed Tim Main to lead its financial institutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of a wider reshuffle of senior bankers.
The London-based financial institution said on Tuesday that Main, who worked under former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley in 2016, will replace Reid Marsh in the role.
Marsh will be promoted to Head of International Financial Banking and may be part of a leadership team focused on growing relationships with the financial institution’s largest international buyers.
The management changes come as Barclays looks to expand its commercial and financial banking operations, particularly in Europe and in health services and capabilities, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The company may even focus on growing its consulting business to absorb excess spending, and plans to increase its sustainable financing capacity as companies move capital out of industries that exacerbate global warming.
“Expanding our EMEA franchise is one of our clearest opportunities to grow our investment banking business globally—a strategic priority that supports sustainable corporate and investment banking growth,” said Global CFO JF Astier. He noted that the reorganization increases the reach of regional management, creates more capacity to cover our customer relationships and expands resources to manage our franchise operations in the region.”
The move follows the criticism of activist investor Edward Bramson of the Barclays financial institution. He tried to pressure management again to reduce the division to focus on retail banking. That failed attempt lasted 3 years until 2021.
Barclays has since generated excess returns from its financial banking business, despite a difficult 12 months for the market as trading slowed due to economic uncertainty.
The financial institution reported revenues of £8.3 billion over the last 12 months, of which £5.8 billion came from the corporate and financial banking unit, supported by expenses and equity income.
Main, currently co-head of the financial institutions group with Joel Fleck, joined Barclays in New York in 2016 from Evercore Partners, where he was a senior managing director.
Before Evercore, Main spent more than 20 years at JPMorgan, where Staley also worked. Principal led the financial institution group and worked on major transactions for the financial institution, advising Wells Fargo on its acquisition of Wachovia.
He came here under the Barclays highlight when it was revealed that the whistleblower highlighted some of Main’s private points on the table. Staley tried to put down a whistleblower who accused him of protecting Main’s private affairs, which led to Staley being hit with £60,000. Additionally, Barclays recently hired Arif Vohra from Bank of America. Vohra, who has more than 20 years of experience as the international head of the financial institutions group.
