C.S. Venkatakrishnan said UK banks have weathered the turmoil impacting smaller US lenders, with deposits at his firm growing over the first three months of the year.
(Bloomberg) — C.S. Venkatakrishnan said UK banks have weathered the turmoil impacting smaller US lenders, with deposits at his firm growing over the first three months of the year.
“The UK has been more insulated from that deposit flight across banks,” the Barclays Plc chief executive officer said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, after the firm reported its first-quarter results. “The deposit franchise has behaved extremely well and predictably.”
With Credit Suisse Group AG and various smaller US lenders upended by customers pulling deposits, investors are now closely tracking the flow of money into or out of banks. At Barclays, group deposits rose by about £10 billion ($12.5 billion) in the first quarter with Venkatakrishnan noting it benefited in particular from corporates stashing more cash at the bank.
Still, he said he expects there will be changes to bank regulation after the recent liquidity issues at some lenders. Regulators will likely reconsider how they assess liquidity and “are also probably going to look at how they supervise big banks versus smaller banks,” he said.
Backs Board
The executive also defended his board over its earlier backing of then-CEO Jes Staley over his links to Jeffrey Epstein when he was at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
In recent months, the bank’s decision to allow Staley to leave on good terms has come under scrutiny as a number of US legal cases reveal new details of the Staley’s interactions with Epstein before he joined the British bank, including excerpts from hundreds of emails between the two men.
Read More: Barclays Directors Should Be Probed Over Staley, Says Bramson
“There are new allegations — our board has spoken about these new allegations — they are serious,” Venkatakrishnan said, while noting the bank would have employed rigorous processes to reach its decisions around Staley. “I know our board well, they are very thoughtful, deliberative people. And while I was not a member of the board, I know individually and collectively that they employ very careful and detailed processes to reach their decisions.”
The interview comes almost two months after Venkatakrishnan said he was in remission after completing three months of cancer treatment. He said this enforced period of working from home had given him a renewed appreciation of working with his colleagues in person.
Read More: Barclays CEO Says He’s in Remission After Cancer Treatment
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.