Barclays Plc's chief executive officer told his investment bankers that he would continue to invest in the unit, as the lender looks to stem a slew of recent departures in New York.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan issued a rallying cry to deal-makers at a virtual town hall this week attended by senior investment banking staff, according to a person familiar with the matter. While the town halls are regular occurrences, a purpose of the latest gathering was to address the departures, the person said.
The London-based lender this month lost three senior deal-makers including former investment banking co-head John Miller to Jefferies Financial Group Inc., while UBS Group AG hired away a group of a half dozen technology, media and telecommunications bankers.
Barclays sits outside the top 10 advisors on deals by value globally this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with Wall Street firms dominating the top of the rankings.
A representative for Barclays declined to comment. Reuters reported details of the town hall earlier.
On Wednesday, Barclays appointed Jean-Francois "J.F." Astier, a former investment bank co-head, to run the global financial-sponsors group. The bank recently moved higher in investment-banking league tables for financial sponsors, with the firm now ranking fourth globally based on activity so far this year, up from sixth for all of 2022.
The internal meeting echoes Venkatakrishnan's comments at a conference Thursday that he plans to add more M&A advisors.
--With assistance from Jan-Henrik Förster and Fareed Sahloul.
