Barclays’ president heads for the US

by Gill Montia

Story link: Barclays’ president heads for the US

The president of Barclays PLC, Bob Diamond, will be spending more time in New York in the future.

Mr Diamond, who is also chief executive of Barclays Capital, Barclays Global Investors and Barclays Wealth, will split his time equally between Manhattan and London in a move aimed at building the bank’s presence on Wall Street.

The news has been interpreted by some as evidence that London is losing its status in the financial world but Barclays has dismissed this.

Analysts have also speculated that Mr Diamond plans to take advantage of the difficulties being experienced by the leading US investment banks, all of which are seeking to rebuild their balance sheets in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

In related news, Libor, the rate at which banks lend to one another, rose to 5.93% this week, despite last month’s cut in the Bank of England’s base rate, to 5.25%.

The rise prompted the Federal Reserve and other central banks to inject around $280 billion into the money markets to ease the availability of credit.