Barclays Names Interim Heads of Equities After Former Boss Jumped to Citi -- Financial News

By Paul Clarke

Of Financial News

Barclays PLC turned to its two regional heads of equities to temporarily co-head the unit globally following the abrupt departure of former stock trading chief Fater Belbachir.

The U.K. lender named Paul Leech and Todd Sandoz as interim co-heads of equities, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The shuffle comes around a week after Financial News reported that Mr. Belbachir was moving to Citigroup Inc after less than a year in the job.

Mr. Leech only joined Barclays in January as head of European equities after 25 years at JPMorgan. Mr. Sandoz led the U.K. lender's Americas stock trading unit, having joined in 2018 after leading Nomura's equities business.

Mr. Leech's hire in January reunited him with former JPMorgan trader Mr. Belbachir, who joined Barclays last year to lead its equities division globally. But Mr. Belbachir was poached by Citigroup to lead its reshaped stock trading unit.

Barclays brought in Mr. Belbachir in June last year after the U.K. lender shook up the leadership of its investment bank. Tim Throsby--the Australian brought in to head up its corporate and investment banking unit--left the bank in March, leading to the promotion of former equities chief Stephen Dainton as head of its entire markets business.

Barclays followed Wall Street rivals with a huge uptick in sales and trading revenues in the first quarter thanks to market volatility caused by the coronavirus crisis. Its equities business posted revenue increase of 21% during the first three months of the year, a figure dwarfed by the 106% rise within its fixed income unit.

Website: www.fnlondon.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2020 06:08 ET (10:08 GMT)

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