Barclays continued its purge of remnants from former CEO Robert Diamond’s era on Thursday, announcing that Rich Ricci and Tom Kalaris – two top executives under Diamond’s reign – will soon be leaving their posts at one of the world’s largest banks.
The two moves come as new Barclays head Antony Jenkins continues to transition his company away from the scandal-filled era of his predecessor, which came to an end in July 2012 after Barclays found itself embroiled in a Libor rate-rigging scandal which cost the bank upwards for $450 million.
Ricci, who served as Barclays’ head of investment banking, spent 19 years at the financial institution, with Reuters estimating a total of $122 million in earnings from his time spent there. Cited as “one of the most memorable names in banking,” Ricci is a noted horseracing enthusiast who named one of his horses “Fatcatinthehat” after the bank exec was labeled as such by a newspaper.
Ricci was among the 25 people named by London’s High Court as listed in Libor investigation regulatory documents, and claims to have been a witness for the investigation but to have been cleared.
Eric Bommensath and Tom King will replace the American-born Ricci in May, functioning as co-CEOs of corporate investment and banking for Barclays.
Kalaris will retire as Barclays’ head of wealth and investment management and executive chairman of Barclays’ American division in on June 30. Peter Horrell will assume the former duties, while Skip McGee will become the chief executive of Barclays Americas on May 1. McGee, a former Lehman Brother’s exec, can help to more fully integrate Lehman with Barclays, as The New York Times notes.
For Jenkins, the moves come as a further attempt to push Barclays past its 2012 troubles and away from the reign of Diamond, Chairman Marcus Agius and COO Jerry Del Missier, who all resigned after the Libor fine.
As the New York Times notes, Diamond, Del Missier and Ricci were known within the banking world as the “three musketeers.”
“Since I became Group Chief Executive, a major area of focus for me has been to streamline and improve how the bank is managed, while strengthening control,” Jenkins said in the company’s statement. “All of these appointments will strengthen our ability to execute the Transform Program and drive us towards our goal of becoming the ‘Go-To’ bank for all of our stakeholders.”
Barclays’ statement also notes that Ricci and Kalaris will not receive severance payments, but that each could receive up to one year’s base salary over the course of their notice periods. Multiple sources report this amount at around 700,000 pounds, or $1.06 million, each. Reuters notes that Ricci collected $26 million in deferred bonuses last month alone.
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