LONDON/NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - Barclays maynot pick its next chief executive until early next year,potentially leaving new Chairman John McFarlane in charge for atleast eight months.
McFarlane fired Antony Jenkins as chief executive onWednesday and said he was in no rush to name a successor andwill conduct a global search of internal and externalcandidates.
He told staff the appointment may not take place until thespring, according to comments made at an employee meeting,people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Another person familiar with the matter said the new CEOcould be named at the tail end of this year but it was morelikely to be in February or March.
"We're not going to move quickly on this," McFarlane toldreporters on a conference call on Wednesday following theousting of Jenkins.
"These things take time. It gives time for the internalpeople to show what they can do and it gives time to identifythoroughly the (external) people that haven't been identified inother searches," he added.
Finance Director Tushar Morzaria is the favourite to succeedJenkins, although even if he is chosen McFarlane may want towork alongside Morzaria as executive chairman for a substantialperiod to accelerate the bank's turnaround plan.
McFarlane, who only joined the bank in April, is assumingexecutive duties until a permanent successor is appointed --similar to what he did at UK insurer Aviva. (Reporting by Steve Slater in London and Olivia Oran in NewYork; Editing by Keith Weir)
Barclays (BARC)
Aviva (AV.)