Barclays boss turns to past employer to hire risk chief

BARCLAYS’ new chief executive, Jes Staley, has turned to his former employer JP Morgan to find his new chief risk officer.

CS Venkatakrishnan, who has spent more than two decades in the New York offices of JP Morgan, will move to the British lender in May.

He is replacing Barclays’ longstanding chief risk officer Robert Le Blanc, who has served under five chief executives since his appointment in 2002.

Mr Le Blanc will become vice-chairman of risk and strategy and will con- tinue to advise Mr Staley, who became the head of Barclays in December.

“Mr Venkatakrishnan has a long and well-established track record of helping to prudently define and manage risk appetite in large complex financial institutions like ours,” said Mr Staley, who spent 30 years with JP Morgan.

“He has extensive experience in the development of regulatory capital models and with stress testing. His presence will further strengthen our core management team.”

Mr Venkatakrishnan, known as Venkat at JP Morgan, joined the Wall Street bank in 1994 and has held numerous roles, including managing bond funds and leading the quantitative research team.

He holds a PhD in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He was promoted to head of model risk and development in March 2012, months before the bank lost more than $6bn in the notorious “London Whale” trades, carried out within the firm’s chief investment office.

Mr Venkatakrishnan was among the first at JP Morgan to raise concerns about the growing risk in the investment office’s portfolios, according to a report by the bank following the massive loss.

He is joining Mr Staley’s team at Barclays as it embarks on a restructuring to prepare for new ring-fencing rules for retail banks.