Page 63 - Barclays Bank (B)

customers. By the way, AA is a client of ours. They’ll
give you ten percent off. By the way, Black Tires is

another client of ours. They’ll take care of all your
retreading. We can basically create an entire

ecosystem which makes your life much, much, much

easier.” (13)

Staley’s strategy of retrenchment was to redevelop

Barclays’ investment banking. To this end he faced the

sceptics who questioned his strategy of building a trans-

Atlantic investment banking powerhouse in a climate

where there was excess capacity.

“He had faced down calls to spin off or radically

shrink the investment bank, arguing it serves as a

valuable counterweight to the consumer and credit

card businesses that may be vulnerable to any

slowdown in the U.K. economy after Brexit.” (8)

Barclays is the U.K.’s second-biggest bank by assets, and
investment banking is about half of its revenues in 2017.

Staley said the board was focused “squarely on improving

profitability” after four years of costly restructuring that

saw it strip out more than £5bn of costs, exit Africa and
all retail banking outside the UK, and reduce its

headcount by 60,000.

“It would be wrong to say we are just investing in our

markets business. We want to have a balanced,