Warren gives Barclays two weeks to answer questions on Staley ties
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to Barclays chair Nigel Higgins on July 23 demanding the bank account for what she described as its “apparent failure to meaningfully investigate” the relationship between former CEO Jes Staley and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The letter, obtained by The Guardian, gives the bank until August 6 to answer a series of questions about what it knew about Staley’s relationship with Epstein. Warren wrote that the failure “raises significant governance questions regarding the bank’s ability to hold senior executives accountable for wrongdoing,” according to the letter.
Staley resigned as Barclays CEO in 2021 after the Financial Conduct Authority opened a probe into how he characterized his relationship with Epstein to the bank. The FCA later banned Staley from holding any job in the UK’s financial sector; a court challenge to overturn the ban failed. Staley originally met Epstein in 2000 when he became head of JPMorgan’s private bank, where Epstein was a client.
The letter was sent hours before Staley was scheduled to appear for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.