British banking group Barclays has named Ian Cheshire as the chairman of its new ring-fenced UK retail business.
Ring-fencing mandates British banks to separate their retail banking operations from their riskier investment banking activities by 2019 in order to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. The ring-fenced UK bank of Barclays will operate under the name Barclays UK.
In addition to serving as chairman-designate of Barclays UK that covers its UK retail banking, business banking, consumer credit card and wealth management operations, Cheshire will also become a non-executive of parent Barclays from 3 April 2017.
Cheshire currently serves as the senior independent director of Whitbread and chairman of the advisory board of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. In addition, he holds directorships at Maisons du Monde and Menhaden Capital.
Previously, he worked as chairman of Debenhams, group CEO of Kingfisher, and chairman of the British Retail Consortium.
Barclays chairman John McFarlane said: “Identifying a chairman for Barclays UK is, of course, an important step on our journey to establish our UK ring-fenced bank and I welcome the opportunity to work closely with Sir Ian as we take Barclays forward in its new structure.”
