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By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - A senior British bank lobbyist
has resigned over comments he made in 2008 about businesswoman
Amanda Staveley, who arranged billions of pounds of rescue
financing for Barclays at the height of the credit
crisis when he was at the bank.
Stephen Jones, expected to give evidence in a $2 billion
London court battle between Staveley and Barclays next month,
offered his resignation as chief executive of UK Finance on
Tuesday, which the board accepted.
"Stephen has rightly acknowledged that the comments he made
in 2008 were inappropriate and do not meet the standards
expected of leaders in our industry," said UK Finance's
chairman, Bob Wigley.
Jones, who was a senior Barclays banker in 2008, told UK
Finance staff last week that he could not defend his remarks,
which have been referred to in a civil lawsuit against Barclays
by Staveley's PCP Capital private equity group.
"The comments I made ... are wholly inappropriate and do not
meet the standards of language and behaviour we rightly expect,"
he told staff last week in a memo seen by Reuters.
"As I hope you know, I am and have always been a strong
advocate for diversity in all respects," he added.
He has separately apologised to Staveley, who was not
immediately available for comment on Tuesday.
After a 30-year career in financial services, Jones became
the first chief executive of UK Finance, a banking industry body
set up in 2017 to represent more than 250 companies across the
industry.
PCP's written opening statement to the court mentions
"thoroughly unpleasant comments" by Jones to a colleague about
Staveley in 2008 and refers to other personal comments by senior
Barclays staff of the time, criticising her professional skill
and competence.
Transcripts of internal calls between Barclays executives
could be read aloud in the case, which hinges on the terms
Barclays offered Qatar and PCP's syndicate -- which included Abu
Dhabi investors -- for taking part in a 7.3 billion pound ($9.2
billion) cash call in October 2008.
PCP is claiming damages for alleged deceit in a dispute over
whether Barclays reneged on representations that PCP's
consortium would get the same terms as Qatar.
Barclays has dismissed the case as misconceived and without
merit.
($1 = 0.7949 pounds)
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; editing by Simon Jessop, Kevin
Liffey and Jonathan Oatis)
