Body armour and a very thick skin

摘要

Was the unceremonious firing of the Barclays CEO this past week a simple case of Antony Jenkins not being up to the job of leading the bank through its long list of issues? Or did he fall victim to a new phenomenon sweeping the banking sector? We've had too big to fail; we've had too big to manage. Are we now entering an era of impossible to manage? It surely can't be coincidence that in just a few weeks Jenkins has followed Anshu Jain, Juergen Fitschen, Brady Dougan and Peter Sands - all dealing with the thorny task of rewiring their institutions - through those revolving doors to ignominy? The sheer difficulty of managing the complex restructuring process ordered by regulators who refuse to co-operate (in the case of Barclays think UK ringfence and US intermediate holding company); of simplifying and delayering some truly complex organisations; significantly upping returns during a period of zero interest rates, low client trading velocity and spotty M&A activity to achieve tough ROE hurdles; hacking risk-weighted assets; ditching businesses and thousands of staff; and managing still-evolving capital, liquidity and leverage ratios has to be a nightmare.