Barclays has undertaken another significant leadership reshuffle within its investment bank, hiring Mike Joo from Bank of America as co-chief executive, alongside Adeel Khan, who has been promoted to the same role. This move marks an attempt to simplify the investment bank's leadership structure, replacing a four co-head model introduced in 2024. The changes come as Barclays, currently ranked sixth globally for investment banking fees with an estimated $2.7 billion generated between the start of the year and mid-August, aims to break into the top tier of the US market and compete more effectively with giants like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. The reshuffle has led to uncertainty regarding the future of former co-heads Taylor Wright and Cathal Deasy, while Stephen Dainton, another co-head, announced his retirement last month scottishfinancialnews.com.
Mike Joo brings extensive experience, having previously managed Asia debt capital markets at Credit Suisse and starting his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. His appointment follows the earlier hiring of Alex Ham, former co-chief executive of Numis, as global chair of investment banking, with the goal of increasing Barclays' market share in mergers and acquisitions and IPOs. Barclays Group Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan expressed confidence that this new leadership pairing will be a "strong partnership" to drive the investment bank's strategy forward, building on its strong performance, revenue growth, and integrated client service since 2023 scottishfinancialnews.com, bankingexchange.com.
Historically, Barclays has faced challenges in its investment banking division, with past efforts to shrink the business and focus on specific areas leading to staff departures and concerns about a "death spiral" among some analysts finance.yahoo.com. More recently, while overall profits increased by 12% in 2025 and performance targets were raised, investment banking fees fell by 2%, underperforming Wall Street rivals. The bank aims to improve returns, particularly through growth in the US, where it generates 50-60% of its investment bank revenue uk.marketscreener.com. Analysts have noted Barclays' "subscale" equities business and US equity investment banking franchise as persistent weaknesses, with the bank lagging in US M&A advisory and ECM league tables despite investments ifre.com.
