Barclays' "Bad Bank" Chief Retires

Mark Shapland

8 January 2015

Barclays' "bad bank" head Eric Bommensath has left after less than a year in the role, the UK-listed bank has confirmed.

Bommensath is to retire at the end of this month – just eight months after he was placed in charge of Barclays Non-Core, a new unit set up to manage £110 billion ($165.7 billion) of risk-weighted assets (RWAs). Since the "bad bank" was set up, the level of RWAs inside it has been significantly reduced, to £88 billion at Barclays' half-year results and £81 billion at the end of the third quarter.

The creation of the division was a core element of a plan unveiled last year by Antony Jenkins, Barclays' chief executive, to reshape the group’s structure in an attempt to improve financial returns.

Bommensath has spent 17 years at Barclays and is expected to be replaced by two other executives within the bank's non-core unit, John Mahon and Harry Harrison.

He was one of the best-paid people at Barclays. Last year he received the second-highest share payout from a deferred bonus scheme for top managers, taking home 3.72 million shares worth £8.6 million ($12.9 million).

Barclays has been through a substantial restructuring of its business divisions, reducing the number of them and folding its wealth and investment arm into a new segment. As a result, financial results of the wealth business are no longer published.