Barclays Hires New Risk Chief

Barclays PLC announced a management reshuffle Friday, replacing long- serving chief risk officer Robert Le Blanc with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan.

The U.K.-based lender said that Mr. Venkatakrishnan would be joining from J.P. Morgan Chase in May. Mr. Le Blanc, who helped steer the bank through the aftermath of the financial crisis, will become Barclays's vice chair of risk and strategy.

The hire is the first major management change that Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley has made since taking on the job late last year. Mr. Staley, who is also a J.P. Morgan alumnus, is currently assessing the banks strategy amid lackluster returns. Last week Barclays said it would cut over a 1,000 jobs across its investment bank as it withdrew from several locations around the world. The bank also plans a strategic retreat from Africa.

Mr. Staley is likely to make other new hires to freshen up the bank's management team, analysts say. The bank may be in the market for a new chief executive for its investment bank, should current head Tom King step down next year, analysts have said.

Mr. Venkatakrishnan spent several years as head of operational risk at J.P. Morgan.

"I am pleased to join Jes and his management team as they work to deliver the performance Barclays' shareholders expect," he said.

Mr. Venkatakrishnan was associated with J.P. Morgan's roughly $6 billion trading loss known as the "London Whale." As head of the bank's model risk group, he defended a risk model at the bank related to the London Whale that was later included in a Senate report from its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

U.S. regulators dropped their case against the London Whale trader Bruno Iksil in 2015.

Write to Max Colchester at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2016 13:15 ET (18:15 GMT)

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