BCS Barclays PLC

By Max Colchester 

Barclays PLC Chief Executive Jes Staley will keep his job after British regulators concluded his attempts to unmask a whistleblower didn't represent a "lack of integrity" but they did order him to pay a fine.

The bank said its board had "unanimous confidence" in Mr. Staley and that regulators "are not alleging that he acted with a lack of integrity or that he lacks fitness and propriety to continue to perform his role."

Barclays said it couldn't comment further on the outcome of the probe because Mr. Staley still has the right to challenge the fine. It didn't say how much he was asked to pay.

The decision to back Mr. Staley ends a year of instability for the U.S. executive and draws a line under a major unknown that has weighed on Barclays. Last year the bank flagged Mr. Staley's attempts to reveal the identity of a whistleblower who criticized a hire he made to British regulators and a probe ensued. The whistleblower's identity was never revealed.

Mr. Staley has since apologized for his actions and the bank's board backed the embattled chief executive. At the bank's annual general meeting last year, Chairman John McFarlane said Mr. Staley had "gone through a red light" and "when you go through a red light you don't lose your license." Barclays has said it will dock part of Mr. Staley's pay.

The probe is also being closely watched as the first major test of new U.K. regulations. In 2016, U.K. regulators instituted the "Senior Managers Regime," a set of rules aimed at ensuring bank executives are held responsible for their actions. Around the same time it upgraded rules aimed to protect whistleblowers. They require big U.K. banks to appoint a "whistleblowing champion" among their senior managers and for a report on whistleblowing to be presented to the board every year.

Barclays said a separate probe into the bank's whistleblowing practices hasn't resulted in enforcement.

Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 20, 2018 03:16 ET (07:16 GMT)

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