Top Barclays shareholders are demanding that the British bank appoint an external chairman to repair its reputation following the damage done by the Libor price-rigging scandal.
The calls undermine plans for Sir Michael Rake, now deputy chairman, to succeed the outgoing Marcus Agius, who came under intense questioning over the affair at the UK parliament’s Treasury committee.
Three top-10 investors told the Financial Times that it would be unacceptable for the chairman to be an internal appointment. “We have been quite clear with [the board] that we’d like to see an external appointment as chairman,” said one. “They need someone who is independent of anything that’s gone before.”