Barclays has appointed a former senior US government advisor Bob Hoyt as the UK-listed bank’s as group general counsel. He will succeed Mark Harding in this role, whose intention to retire was announced in February.

Hoyt is expected to take up his role in mid-October, while Harding will retire from Barclays after an appropriate handover period. Hoyt will be a member of the executive committee and report directly to group chief executive, Antony Jenkins.

This is not the first time that Barclays has hired a former senior public sector figure to work in areas related to regulation, an issue that Barclays has had to face since former CEO Bob Diamond and others resigned a year ago amid the LIBOR-rigging scandal. Hector Sants was appointed last December, to the newly-formed role of head of compliance and government and regulatory relations at Barclays. Sants was previously CEO of the UK’s Financial Services Authority, a post he held from 2007 to June 2012. A number of other firms have also bolstered their regulatory and compliance-related teams with ex-senior regulators and public sector figures.

Barclays said that at PNC Financial Services Group, Hoyt was general counsel and chief regulatory affairs officer, having previously served as deputy general Counsel since 2009.  Prior to this, he held roles in public service as general counsel at the US Department of the Treasury from 2006 to 2009, and as special assistant and associate counsel at the White House. Mr Hoyt spent much of the early part of his career in private practice, specialising in securities, litigation and corporate, Barclays said in a statement.

“Banking is a highly regulated industry, the legal matters we face are myriad and complex, and it was important that we recruited a strong leader to succeed Mark, to continue the development of a world-class function to help us manage these challenges. In Bob we believe we have found such a leader.” Jenkins said.

"His appointment also completes my new executive team, the team who will deliver our Transform programme and drive us towards our goal of becoming the 'Go-To' bank,” he added.