Time for new leadership at Barclays and HSBC – and a new name at RBS

After a dull interlude, the big banks in their annual results season look a bit more interesting again. First to report was Barclays, where pre-tax profits were up 25 per cent to £4.4 billion but attention focused, yet again, on Chief Executive Jes Staley, whose name rarely appears in print without ‘accident-prone’ attached to it. The trouble this time is his link to the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was Staley’s client at JP Morgan in his earlier career: under investigation is whether Staley was sufficiently ‘transparent’ with his board and regulators in declaring that relationship.

Staley survived previous embarrassments, including a £642,000 fine imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority for attempting to unmask a whistleblower, with the support of John McFarlane, the Barclays chairman who appointed him in 2015. But McFarlane has been succeeded by sharp-pencilled ex-Rothschilds director Nigel Higgins while the activist shareholder Edward Bramson is still agitating against Staley’s strategy, which includes maintaining a very expensive investment bank — and Barclays’ share price is still well below where it stood when Staley joined.