Barclays (LON:BARC) will be focusing its attention on the most financially viable components of its operations, notably New York and London. This news comes as a new Chief Executive Officer has been selected to head the financial institution – James Staley. The new CEO has been described as economically rational by those closest to him, and his expertise as a financier will be tested when he doubles down on the financial corporation’s most profitable business components. The company will continue to decrease the size of its trading operations throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe, and focus rather on its two main financial centres. Though Staley has not yet assumed the CEO position, he will take up the cudgels in 2016, after he wins the necessary regulatory approval.

What strategies will the CEO employ and how will this affect Barclays?

Barclays will maintain its head offices in New York and London. But widespread retrenchments will be taking place across the board in Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, Hong Kong, Russia and Singapore. These are seen as vital to trimming the fat, boosting company profits and streamlining operations. One of the big positives that Staley comes to the table with is his investment banking experience. Many high-level analysts and CEOs are in favour of reducing capital-intensive operations of investment banks like Barclays and UBS, and instead focusing on capital-light operations. The former CEO of Barclays, Antony Jenkins, attempted to slash 7,000 jobs and cut capital to a third of the group’s share – but he was subsequently fired in July 2015.

More importantly for UK banks, there is a reality taking root that the era of bank bashing is at an end. For starters, Barclays went back to its first choice – American financier James Staley – who it initially intended to hire before appointing Antony Jenkins as CEO. And as for regulatory measures, the BoE (Bank of England) has dropped the requirement of the Senior Managers Regime meaning that senior managers with failures in their departments would have to prove their innocence rather than the authorities proving their guilt. Now, regulators in the UK must uncover proof of negligence or misconduct before taking punitive measures against senior managers. And the most important component from a financial perspective at least – is the easy transfer of capital between different components of the business. In other words, UK banks will now be able to shift money between different divisions of the company such as retail operations, international operations or investment banking operations.