Barclays Capital announced a shake-up of its senior management yesterday, saying co-president Grant Kvalheim is leaving the company.
He departs a month after the investment bank arm of Barclays, the high street bank, revealed a £1.3bn writedown linked to the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.
A spokeswoman for Barclays, the UK's third-largest bank, said co-president Jerry del Missier will become president but provided no other comment.
The changes to top management are the latest in a series of similar moves at international investment banks after they revealed billions of dollars in losses stemming froma crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market and resulting credit market squeeze.
Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Bear Stearns are among the top investment banks that have replaced members of their top management.
The changes at Barclays Capital were unveiled in an internal announcement earlier in the day. Bob Diamond, an American, remains chief executive of the investment bank unit.
Diamond joined the board of Barclays in 2005 after pressure from shareholders who had noted the rapid growth of Barclays Capital. He had joined the bank eight years earlier and his substantial pay had become the subject of City gossip.
Just before Christmas, Barclays Capital revealed a £1.3bn writedown for losses on sub-prime-linked securities, a smaller hit than had been expected in the City and less than that taken by rivals including Citigroup and UBS, the Swiss investment bank.
However, banking industry analysts said last night that Barclays Capital, which has been its parent's fastest-growing unit for several years, is likely to see a sharp slowdown in growth this year amid worsening economic conditions on both sides of the Atlantic and a persistent debt-market crisis.
Speculation has been swirling around the Square Mile for some time that Kvalheim was going to leave after Barclays failed in its attempted takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, which would have substantially enlarged Barclays Capital.
In September, Barclays Capital took responsibility for credit trading away from Kvalheim and handed it to del Missier. Barclays Capital said the move simplified its structure.
Del Missier is responsible for the firm's global markets businesses and is also regional head for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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