Independent Review Released About Barclays' Business Practices
In July 2012, the Board of Barclays PLC (Barclays) announced that it had commissioned an independent external review of its business practices. Barclays appointed City lawyer and former investment bank, Anthony Salz, to lead the review. The Salz Review was published on 3 April 2013.
The review noted that serious shortcomings in Barclays had developed by the time of the global financial crisis: the absence of a common purpose or set of values; cultural inconsistencies across the Bank; insufficiently strong controls; and a performance system that reflected financial performance at the expense of other behaviours and failed to focus sufficiently on the development of its people. These shortcomings led to conduct problems involving breaches of regulation, investigations and litigation, with reputational damage and the loss of public trust.
The review also noted that these problems were shared by other players in the finance industry but "Barclays must not take comfort from this." The review contained a number of recommendations that, if implemented, could help remedy the shortcomings. These covered a wide variety of issues and areas, such as customers, firm values, monitoring progress, and a code of conduct.
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Originally Published:
03/04/2013