Major test for Barclays’ boss

Barclays boss Antony Jenkins faces one of the biggest tests of his leadership this month when he decides whether the bank, Britain’s third largest, should fight accusations it deceived and defrauded customers in the US.

If Jenkins accepts the allegations, made in a lawsuit filed by New York’s Attorney General, he will face a dilemma arising from his pledge to jettison any business that does not fit into the bank’s new, squeaky-clean image.

However, the US trading desk at the centre of the allegations is part of Barclays’ equities business, an area it had planned to keep largely intact while shrinking its investment bank.