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It is a list that includes the former HBOS banker Peter Cummings, the former Co-op Bank finance director Barry Tootell and the former Credit Suisse First Boston trader James Archer, son of the author and Conservative peer Lord Archer – and now it includes Jes Staley, the former Barclays chief executive.

Banning someone from working in financial services is one of the ultimate sanctions that can be brought to bear by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It is a draconian measure and one the regulator exercises relatively rarely.

That makes the ban imposed today on Mr Staley – who is appealing against the judgement – all the more extraordinary.

Make no mistake, this is an absolutely seismic event.

Being chief executive of one of Britain’s ‘big four’ commercial banks – Barclays, NatWest, HSBC and Lloyds – are among the most prestigious roles UK financial services has to offer. Never before, though, has a chief executive of one of the four ended up being banned from the City.

Think about some of the great bankers of the past who have led the four, for example, Sir Brian Pitman at Lloyds or Sir Willie Purves at HSBC. The idea of them finding themselves in such circumstances, being banned from the City, is unthinkable.

The irony is that, when Mr Staley arrived at Barclays in 2015, he was seen as offering the bank stability.

The door into the Barclays CEO’s office had long been a revolving one. Martin Taylor, CEO since 1994, was felled after a boardroom coup in 1998. His successor, Michael O’Neill, lasted a day in the job after failing his medical. Then came Matt Barrett, who lasted until 2004 with just a few mishaps, including telling a Commons select committee he would not allow his children to have a credit card.

Barclays bank
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Jes Staley was CEO of Barclays from 2015 to 2021

The popular Irish-Canadian’s successor was less fortunate. John Varley, who lasted until 2010, was later charged – and later acquitted – with conspiracy to commit fraud over a financial crisis-era fund-raising. Bob Diamond, who succeeded him, was sacked on the orders of Mervyn King, the then Bank of England governor, over the bank’s Libor-rigging.

Antony Jenkins, CEO from 2012 to 2015, was supposed to mark a change from Mr Diamond, under whom the investment bankers had reigned supreme in Barclays. The former head of the bank’s relatively unsung retail operations, he was nicknamed ‘Mr Nice’ internally, for his efforts to rebuild the reputation of Barclays and to distance it from the legacy issues, chiefly the Libor scandal, that had laid it low.

Unfortunately for him, he fell victim to the revenge of the investment bankers, who had never trusted him.

John McFarlane, the guitar-strumming, Feng Shui-loving, chairman at the time, decided that Mr Jenkins’s successor needed to be someone who understood investment banking as well as commercial and retail banking.

It was for that reason that he reached for Mr Staley, a Wall Street veteran who had spent 35 years at JPMorgan, although much of that time had been spent in the bank’s asset management and private banking divisions rather than in out-and-out investment banking on trading.

Very much a ‘Boston brahmin’ – his grandfathers were a top retail executive and the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his father the CEO of a chemicals company – Mr Staley initially made a good impression.

But he quickly blotted his copy book, being fined and censured by the regulator for trying to unmask a whistle-blower, which proved an unwanted distraction. So, too, did a long-running campaign by Edward Bramson, an activist investor, who sought unsuccessfully to get Barclays to spin off its investment banking arm.

Mr Staley finally seemed to have won the day when, in November 2021, he was forced out over his links with Jeffrey Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP
Image:
Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP

By then, evidence unearthed by the FCA and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority had revealed he was far closer to the disgraced paedophile than he had let on, with more than 1,200 emails between him and Epstein dating back to his time at JPMorgan containing mysterious phrases such as ‘snow white’.

It subsequently emerged that Mr Staley had even pressed executives at JPMorgan to retain Epstein as a client even after he had been jailed for soliciting sex from a minor.

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Shockingly, some of the emails – cited by the FCA today – even revealed that Mr Staley told Epstein he was in talks to take the top job at Barclays, prior to his appointment.

The ban and fine issued today is not the end of the matter.

Mr Staley has appealed against the decision – which is why the FCA today called it ‘provisional’ – and has taken it to the FCA’s Upper Tribunal. It has overturned a number of such bans in recent years, including one in 2021 on the Scottish insurance executive Stuart Forsyth and one in 2019 against Andrew Tinney, a former chief operating officer of Barclays Wealth.

The Upper Tribunal has, in recent times, been highly critical of the FCA’s high staff turnover and decision-making – while the burden of proof faced by the regulator is far heavier than that faced by Mr Staley himself.

Quite apart from his determination to clear his name, this is probably why Mr Staley – who at 66 might be forgiven for wanting to go and enjoy the riches he has accumulated in his career – is persisting with an appeal.

As for Barclays, now being steered by the low-key CS Venkatakrishnan, it probably wishes the whole thing would go away.

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UK economy figures not as bad as they look despite GDP fall, analysts say

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UK economy figures not as bad as they look despite GDP fall, analysts say

The UK economy unexpectedly shrank in May, even after the worst of Donald Trump’s tariffs were paused, official figures showed.

A standard measure of economic growth, gross domestic product (GDP), contracted 0.1% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Rather than a fall being anticipated, growth of 0.1% was forecast by economists polled by Reuters as big falls in production and construction were seen.

It followed a 0.3% contraction in April, when Mr Trump announced his country-specific tariffs and sparked a global trade war.

A 90-day pause on these import taxes, which has been extended, allowed more normality to resume.

This was borne out by other figures released by the ONS on Friday.

Exports to the United States rose £300m but “remained relatively low” following a “substantial decrease” in April, the data said.

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Overall, there was a “large rise in goods imports and a fall in goods exports”.

A ‘disappointing’ but mixed picture

It’s “disappointing” news, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said. She and the government as a whole have repeatedly said growing the economy was their number one priority.

“I am determined to kickstart economic growth and deliver on that promise”, she added.

But the picture was not all bad.

Growth recorded in March was revised upwards, further indicating that companies invested to prepare for tariffs. Rather than GDP of 0.2%, the ONS said on Friday the figure was actually 0.4%.

It showed businesses moved forward activity to be ready for the extra taxes. Businesses were hit with higher employer national insurance contributions in April.

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The expansion in March means the economy still grew when the three months are looked at together.

While an interest rate cut in August had already been expected, investors upped their bets of a 0.25 percentage point fall in the Bank of England’s base interest rate.

Such a cut would bring down the rate to 4% and make borrowing cheaper.

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Is Britain going bankrupt?

Analysts from economic research firm Pantheon Macro said the data was not as bad as it looked.

“The size of the manufacturing drop looks erratic to us and should partly unwind… There are signs that GDP growth can rebound in June”, said Pantheon’s chief UK economist, Rob Wood.

Why did the economy shrink?

The drops in manufacturing came mostly due to slowed car-making, less oil and gas extraction and the pharmaceutical industry.

The fall was not larger because the services industry – the largest part of the economy – expanded, with law firms and computer programmers having a good month.

It made up for a “very weak” month for retailers, the ONS said.

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UK economy remains fragile – and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner

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UK economy remains fragile - and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner

Monthly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures are volatile and, on their own, don’t tell us much.

However, the picture emerging a year since the election of the Labour government is not hugely comforting.

This is a government that promised to turbocharge economic growth, the key to improving livelihoods and the public finances. Instead, the economy is mainly flatlining.

Output shrank in May by 0.1%. That followed a 0.3% drop in April.

Ministers were celebrating a few months ago as data showed the economy grew by 0.7% in the first quarter.

Hangover from artificial growth

However, the subsequent data has shown us that much of that growth was artificial, with businesses racing to get orders out of the door to beat the possible introduction of tariffs. Property transactions were also brought forward to beat stamp duty changes.

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In April, we experienced the hangover as orders and industrial output dropped. Services also struggled as demand for legal and conveyancing services dropped after the stamp duty changes.

Many of those distortions have now been smoothed out, but the manufacturing sector still struggled in May.

Signs of recovery

Manufacturing output fell by 1% in May, but more up-to-date data suggests the sector is recovering.

“We expect both cars and pharma output to improve as the UK-US trade deal comes into force and the volatility unwinds,” economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics said.

Meanwhile, the services sector eked out growth of 0.1%.

A 2.7% month-to-month fall in retail sales suppressed growth in the sector, but that should improve with hot weather likely to boost demand at restaurants and pubs.

Struggles ahead

It is unlikely, however, to massively shift the dial for the economy, the kind of shift the Labour government has promised and needs in order to give it some breathing room against its fiscal rules.

The economy remains fragile, and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner.

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Is Britain going bankrupt?

Concerns that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering tax hikes could weigh on consumer confidence, at a time when businesses are already scaling back hiring because of national insurance tax hikes.

Inflation is also expected to climb in the second half of the year, further weighing on consumers and businesses.

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Government to announce new scheme as it ramps up AI adoption with backing from Facebook owner Meta

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Government to announce new scheme as it ramps up AI adoption with backing from Facebook owner Meta

The government is speeding up its adoption of AI to try and encourage economic growth – with backing from Facebook parent Meta.

It will today announce a $1m (£740,000) scheme to hire up to 10 AI “experts” to help with the adoption of the technology.

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken repeatedly about wanting to use the developing technology as part of his “plan for change” to improve the UK – with claims it could produce tens of billions in savings and efficiencies.

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The government is hoping the new hires could help with problems like translating classified documents en masse, speeding up planning applications or help with emergency responses when power or internet outages occur.

The funding for the roles is coming from Meta, through the Alan Turing Institute. Adverts will go live next week, with the new fellowships expected to start at the beginning of 2026.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “This fellowship is the best of AI in action – open, practical, and built for public good. It’s about delivery, not just ideas – creating real tools that help government work better for people.”

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He added: “The fellowship will help scale that kind of impact across government, and develop sovereign capabilities where the UK must lead, like national security and critical infrastructure.”

The projects will all be based on open source models, meaning there will be a minimal cost for the government when it comes to licensing.

Meta describes its own AI model, Llama, as open source, although there are questions around whether it truly qualifies for that title due to parts of its code base not being published.

The owner of Facebook has also sponsored several studies into the benefits of government adopting more open source AI tools.

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Mr Kyle’s Department for Science and Technology has been working on its mission to increase the uptake of AI within government, including through the artificial intelligence “incubator”, under which these fellowships will fall.

The secretary of state has pointed to the success of Caddy – a tool that helps call centre workers search for answers in official documents faster – and its expanding use across government as an example of an AI success story.

He said the tool, developed with Citizens Advice, shows how AI can “boost productivity, improve decision-making, and support frontline staff”. A trial suggested it could cut waiting times for calls in half.

My Kyle also recently announced a deal with Google to provide tech support to government and assist with modernisation of data.

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Joel Kaplan, the chief global affairs officer from Meta, said: “Open-source AI models are helping researchers and developers make major scientific and medical breakthroughs, and they have the potential to transform the delivery of public services too.

“This partnership with ATI will help the government access some of the brightest minds and the technology they need to solve big challenges – and to do it openly and in the public interest.”

Jean Innes, the head of the Alan Turing Institute, said: “These fellowships will offer an innovative way to match AI experts with the real world challenges our public services are facing.”

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