£800,000 salary for 80% full-time position as Barclays chairman

Barclays has ended its search for a new chairman by announcing that banking veteran John McFarlane will take on the role from next year.

He will receive an annual fee of £800,000 for a role which is expected to have a time commitment equivalent to 80% of a full-time position.

He will replace David Walker, who stepped into the chairman's seat in 2012 following the Libor-rigging scandal that left the British bank's reputation in tatters.

The handover following the bank's AGM next spring triggers changes at the top of insurance giant Aviva and transport operator FirstGroup because Mr McFarlane is currently chairman of both companies.

He will be stepping down from those positions next year, prompting Aviva to announce current board member Adrian Montague as its new chairman.

Mr McFarlane, who was chief executive of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group between 1997 and 2007, only became chairman of FirstGroup at the start of this year. He took the helm at Aviva in January 2013.

The new chairman will have plenty to do at Barclays after anger over rising bonuses and falling profits marred the group's most recent AGM.

Shareholders applauded a succession of speakers criticising its remuneration policy while the head of the bank's pay committee, John Sunderland, was heckled.

Sunderland, who led the appointment process, said today: "The Barclays board set very challenging requirements for its new chairman and I am very pleased that in John McFarlane we have identified someone who met all of our criteria.

"John is an enormously experienced and respected banker with global experience of both retail and investment banking and he will bring great leadership, integrity and knowledge to the role."

Mr McFarlane was a director of Royal Bank of Scotland between 2008 and 2012 and has overseen the recovery of Aviva since a shareholder rebellion on pay and performance ousted its chief executive in 2012.

He said Walker had made significant progress in putting in place the foundations for "sustainable, long term success".

Mr McFarlane, who will join the Barclays board as a non-executive director in January, added: "I am very excited to be asked to chair Barclays as it enters the next, important stage of its long history."