Apologizes for Handling of Whistle-Blower Complaint -<br />By CHAD BRAYMAY 10, 2017<br />LONDON — Barclays shareholders vented their frustrations with James E. Staley, the British bank’s chief executive, on<br />Wednesday after he was caught up in a regulatory inquiry last month over his treatment of a whistle-blower complaint.<br />At the bank’s annual meeting in London, one shareholder called for Mr. Staley to step down from the stage — John McFarlane, the Barclays chairman, declined the request —<br />and another later asked for Mr. Staley to resign immediately.<br />“I have apologized to the board, and I would today like to apologize to you as well, for that error.”<br />British regulators are investigating Mr. Staley after he sought to learn the identity of a whistle-blower last year after the company received two anonymous letters<br />that involved a former colleague at JPMorgan Chase whom he had hired.<br />“I feel it is important that I acknowledge to you — our shareholders —<br />that I made a mistake in becoming involved in an issue which I should have left to the business to deal with,” Mr. Staley told investors on Wednesday.<br />Mr. McFarlane said that Mr. Staley mistakenly believed at the time<br />that the matter was closed and he could proceed with efforts to learn the individual’s identity.<br />“If I believed a chief executive should go, you know me, he would go,” Mr. McFarlane said.
