Barclays/Agius: Agius takes the chair

Barclays has swapped an out-sider for an insider to chair the UK banking group’s board. Matt Barrett, the outgoing chairman, was a high-living Canadian. A gregarious figure with little connection to the UK banking scene, Barrett said when he joined Barclays in 1999 that he had longed since childhood to work for Lloyds TSB. His replacement, former Lazard banker Marcus Agius, is the reverse: a discreet insider who knows the City back to front. Agius will slot comfortably into the complex pol...