Hats off to Barclays boss Antony Jenkins for not running his bank solely for the interests of tabloid editors and politicians - that, after all, is Ross McEwan's job at RBS. Jenkins came under fire last week for defending his decision to increase the bank's bonus pool despite a fall in profits. He said he wanted to avoid a "death spiral" in the investment bank, a colourful choice of words for the man who brought us the "Project Transform" and the balanced score-card. Some people thought Jenkins' bonus defence undermined his reforming credentials, but that all depends on what his reform agenda is. In the same week that Jenkins' intervention prevented the investment bank from slipping off this mortal coil, the firm took another step that might rile a Treasury Select Committee - it hired Robert Mayhew form Credit Suisse to work in its corporate broking department. Mayhew is the son of David, a City legend on a par with Ian Hannam, although without the parachuting skills. Mayhew Senior was the most blue-blooded investment banker ever to have walked the fields of Eton College so the arrival of his son, also an Old Etonian, gives the bank a dash of class that may not go down well on Main Street.
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