LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays Plc’s (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) new boss promised to move quickly and boldly to reform the scandal-hit bank, signaling possible retrenchment in investment banking as he sets out to reform a culture regulators have criticized as too aggressive.

Chief Executive Antony Jenkins, appointed 11 days ago to restore the reputation of Britain’s fourth-largest bank after a series of scandals, faces a delicate balancing act in reassuring investment bankers who deliver more than half of Barclays’ profits while rebalancing the group’s operations.

LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Barclays’ new boss
promised bold action to tackle big bonuses at its investment
bank and to cut businesses that suck up too much capital, as he
reforms a culture regulators have criticised as too aggressive.

Chief Executive Antony Jenkins, appointed 11 days ago to
restore the reputation of Britain’s fourth-largest bank after a
series of scandals, on Monday said investment banking has a
central place within the group.

LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – The future of Barclays’
investment bank is the most pressing issue for new chief
executive Antony Jenkins to address when he speaks to investors
and his own investment bankers on Monday.

Jenkins, appointed 11 days ago to restore the reputation of
Britain’s fourth-largest bank after a series of scandals, is
expected to curb the riskier investment banking business built
by his predecessor as he reforms a culture regulators have
criticised as too aggressive.

LONDON (Reuters) – Top 20 Xstrata Schroders dismissed commodities trader Glencore’s eleventh hour revised offer for the miner as still below its true value on Friday.

“We’re still not particularly enthused,” said Schroder’s head of UK equities Richard Buxton after Glencore raised its offer to 3.05 new shares for every Xstrata share it does not already own, up from 2.8 shares.

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) – Corporate treasurers, pension
funds and charities are seeking advice on whether to quit banks
engulfed by the recent welter of financial scandals.

Institutional savers are nervous that banks may struggle to
afford punishments doled out to those guilty of rigging interest
rates, mis-selling products and performing inadequate checks
against money laundering. Cost estimates on rate-rigging alone
top $20 billion.

LONDON (Reuters) – A global campaign to tax trillions of dollars hidden in offshore tax havens has made revolutionary progress, an official leading the drive said, rejecting suggestions that the super rich are running rings around Western authorities.

Pascal Saint-Amans, director of a unit at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, also cast doubt on estimates that the havens are illicitly sheltering wealth equivalent to several hundred times the fortune of Bill Gates.

LONDON (Reuters) – A global campaign to tax trillions of dollars hidden in offshore tax havens has made revolutionary progress, an official leading the drive said, rejecting suggestions that the super rich are running rings around Western authorities.

Pascal Saint-Amans, director of a unit at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, also cast doubt on estimates that the havens are illicitly sheltering wealth equivalent to several hundred times the fortune of Bill Gates.

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) – Europe’s banks are expected to post sharp profit falls in second quarter results as they count the cost of the debt crisis and try to anticipate the impact of the Libor interest-rate rigging scandal on the industry.

The European economy is heading towards recession, making companies nervous about issuing stocks and bonds. Trading has slowed and this has hurt investment banking, typically the most lucrative part of a bank’s business.

LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) – Lloyds Banking Group
has agreed to sell 632 branches to the Co-operative, a deal
mandated by regulators in an effort to boost competition in
British banking while preventing Lloyds from benefiting unfairly
from its state bailout four years ago.

Mutually-owned Co-op said the deal would boost its share of
Britain’s branch network to 10 percent from less than four
percent, creating a new force in retail banking capable of
taking on Britain’s dominant lenders.

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) – European fund managers are
keeping contingency plans for a euro zone break-up under wraps
in case investors who incur losses use the information as
ammunition with which to sue them.

Too much or too little public planning for a collapse of the
indebted currency union could land investment firms with
lawsuits, management consultants and legal experts said.