• Audiences see Netflix original films as "meaningfully worse" in quality than the releases of most major films studios, according to new research from Barclays. 
• The firm analyzed IMDB audience ratings for all films released by Netflix and the top six studios at the global box office this year, and Netflix ranked sixth overall in median score, behind the top five studios. 

While Netflix has ramped up its original film production to net a substantial viewership, audiences still view the streaming service's film offerings as qualitatively inferior to the releases from most major film studios, according to new research from Barclays, led by analyst Kannan Venkateshwar.

As Barclays notes, Netflix recently reported that the 33 original movies the company has released in 2018 so far have gained an audience of around 300 million viewers (or an average of around 9 million viewers per film). 

Barclays said that Netflix's audience for original films this year would equate to an estimated global box office performance of more than $4 billion.

But in the eyes of audiences, Netflix films are still "meaningfully worse" in quality than most studio releases, according to Barclays. 

To assess audience perception of film quality, the firm analyzed the median IMDB audience ratings for all original movies released by Netflix and the top six studios at the global box office in 2018. It found that Netflix's films ranked sixth overall in median score, behind the top five studios and only ahead of Paramount.

In a few notable instances, Netflix's strategy for original films has gained viewership despite negative critical (or even audience) perception of quality. 

This year, Netflix bought the film "The Cloverfield Paradox" from Paramount for $50 million and surprise released it after the Super Bowl in February. Though it brought in an estimated 5 million viewers in its first week, the film was panned by critics and scored low audience ratings on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. 

Last year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings pointed to high Rotten Tomatoes audience scores for its Will Smith-led fantasy film "Bright" as the "measurement of success" that the company cited against critical panning of the film.

While Hastings blasted critics for being "disconnected from the mass appeal" of its strategy in releasing films like "Bright," which drew 11 million viewers in its first three days of release, it appears that the company still has some major ground to make up in its stated attempt to win over the masses. 

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• Barclays is in the early innings of an overhaul of its equities division.
• It recently promoted rising star Betty Gee to run prime brokerage sales in the Americas, a key business that she says has increasingly "become a driver of the industry's equities wallet."
• Business Insider sat down with Gee to discuss what it takes to start a hedge fund, what's behind the string of colossal launches in the industry, and how technology and electronic adoption are changing the industry and making transparency all the more crucial.

Many Wall Street banks experienced stellar equities performance in the first quarter amid volatility spikes and increased client trading. Industrywide, equities revenue rose 28% during the period, according to research from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

But no bank grew more precipitously than Barclays, which saw its equities revenues shoot up 43%, to $827 million, compared with $577 million in the first quarter of 2017, with derivatives and financing leading the way.

It was the world's fastest-growing equities business in the first quarter, according to public earnings results.

While Barclays has gained some momentum, the British bank is still in the early innings of an overhaul of its equities division, a group that finished toward the bottom of the Wall Street league table each of the past three years, according to data from industry consultant Coalition. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan typically dominate equities trading.

While many of Barclay's senior positions were filled through external hires in the months since Stephen Dainton joined as global head of equities in August, the bank this spring made an internal promotion for a key role: its head of prime brokerage sales in the Americas, which is now led by Betty Gee, a rising star who joined the bank in 2016 as its head of strategic consulting within that same division.

The firm's prime brokerage business — the group that provides financing and other services to hedge funds — is a crucial component to turning the ship around and winning back market share in the $42 billion equities industry, Gee told Business Insider in an interview at Barclays' midtown Manhattan headquarters.

"I think what's been happening and what we've been seeing is that increasingly financing and prime brokerage has become a driver of the industry's equities wallet," Gee said. "In other words, the prime financing engine continues to be a catalyst for growth within equities."

Gee has had, as she describes it, a "mosaic" career: consulting for big financial institutions for McKinsey & Co. after college, a return to school for a JD from Harvard Law, a three-year stint working for white-shoe law firm Wachtell Lipton during the merger boom of the mid-2000s, a switch to investing as a hedge-fund analyst, a switch back to corporate law following the financial crisis, and then, in 2013, she jumped to BlackRock, working in its Financial Markets Advisory business as its interim chief operating officer and then chief marketing officer.

She was ultimately lured to Barclays to run strategic consulting within its prime services division in the US, a post requiring content expertise as well as developing client relationships. She viewed it as a synthesis of the myriad roles she's played in her Wall Street career.

Gee takes the prime brokerage reins amid swirling changes in the hedge-fund industry, which in 2018 is continuing to recover from a miserable multiyear run of underwhelming returns and capital redemptions.

Money is gushing back toward hedge funds, especially toward massive, multibillion-dollar launches such as Steve Cohen's Point72 Asset Management, Daniel Sundheim's D1 Capital, and Michael Gelband's ExodusPoint, which, with a reported $8 billion under its belt, is expected to be the largest launch of all time.

Gee is quick to point out that Barclays serves clients both small and large with fervor, and the bank expects to grow its business at both ends of the spectrum.

"We're in growth mode and we're in investing mode. Barclays leadership has been very vocal about that," Gee said.

Business Insider sat down with Gee to discuss her promotion, what it takes to start a hedge fund in 2018, what's behind the string of colossal launches, what differentiates Barclays' prime business from competitors, and how technology and electronic adoption are making transparency all the more crucial.

Interview condensed and edited for clarity.

Why she decided to join Barclays, after stops in consulting, investing, and law.

When I initially joined Barclays at the end of 2016, it was to be the US head of the strategic consulting business, which is part of capital solutions within prime services. I was really intrigued by what the business did because it seemed to me very rarely at this stage in one's career can you simultaneously develop content expertise as well as continue to build your client relationships. Usually at some point you begin to specialize in one or another — I'm speaking in generalized terms. I thought this opportunity, with the client focus and the client-service focus and bringing thought leadership to clients, that I'd like to maintain that connectivity while developing thought leadership.

On jumping into prime services in 2016 amid a comparatively rough period for hedge funds.

Part of my thinking in making the move at the time that I did into the business and into the role is, when there's some catalyst or inflection point in the industry, that's actually one of the more exciting times to make an impact, right? Because there's sort of an opening to be where innovation and creativity and energy can make a difference.

There's also a lot of uncertainty when an industry is undergoing catalysts or change, but the way I look at career and business and strategy is that, in that uncertainty, there's a lot of opportunity.

There's also a lot of uncertainty when an industry is undergoing catalysts or change, but the way I look at career and business and strategy is that, in that uncertainty, there's a lot of opportunity.

So your point about the particular time and the evolution of the business or the industry, that was part of the excitement. I had met with senior members of the business and had conversations with them about the strategy.

And the way they looked at that opportunity set, I felt very aligned with. That's part of the answer to at that particular time what motivated me to make the move and why I thought, "This is what I want to get involved in at this time."

Why prime brokerage is a key engine for growth for banks' equities departments.

What we've been seeing is that increasingly financing and prime brokerage have become a driver of the industry's equities wallet. In other words, the prime financing engine continues to be a catalyst for growth within equities. So you find yourself where today it's difficult to separate execution, clearing, and financing in the equities business, because everything is integrated and coordinated into this one, more dynamic equities ecosystem.

A side bar, but some people, when they speak about equities you might think about, "Well, there's been margin compression." There has been compression in the market, but actually the equities business continues to grow. If you're just talking about execution, there's been compression in cash commissions in that part of the equities ecosystem, but as a result of compression and regulation and just the growth and consolidation within the hedge-fund industry, there's been growth and innovation in prime. So that's sort of the background to me saying increasingly we're seeing prime and financing as the engine behind growth in the equities ecosystem.

If you think about equities, futures, fixed income, across asset classes, financing is the bridge or the glue where it links a lot of these businesses. Generally speaking, in terms of the industry and the business, we're just seeing opportunities for increased growth in financing that then drives growth across the entire equities ecosystem.

What it takes to launch a hedge fund in 2018.

Attributes that probably tend to position a new launch for success are a large network that the manager already knows from their prior shop. That's just human nature. We observe that people tend to invest with people they already know.

A meticulous marketing and branding plan. Being clear about what the differentiators are and being able to communicate that with investors. An alignment in interests with the investors. For example, founders' fee terms that are unique and thoughtful. Really sitting down the investor and figuring out how we can get on the same page. And then also we're observing more groups that are leveraging outsourced functions just in getting up off the ground so that they can stay more lean and nimble and focused on core competencies versus building in-house capabilities.

What's behind the handful of colossal hedge-fund launches in 2018.

The hedge-fund industry is becoming a more mature industry. As the hedge-fund industry matures, investors' portfolios tend to get more fully allocated. With new launches, what we're observing is it's more investors asking themselves the questions, "What factors might make me pull from manager X and invest in manager Y?" It's more about reallocating share in a mature market. Because of that, at this point in the evolution of the industry, it's relatively speaking harder for new launches to gain traction. It's easier with top talent to convince allocators to basically pull from X and give to Y.

That then feeds back to why are there more massive launches. It's because of the consolidation in the industry and everyone sort of focused on, "How do I find someone I already know with the meticulous marketing and branding who can sit down with me across the table and align incentives?" 

We have seen sustained interest among investors in new launches and emerging managers for these reasons, as well as the fact that in certain cases these emerging managers can represent a differentiated opportunity set. 

What sets Barclays apart from other prime brokerage competitors. 

If we start big picture and what we think differentiates us, what you start with is just we’re proud of our brand and our scale. We've been in this business for more than two decades. We have a strong legacy, and a lot of the partners we chose to work with back then are the biggest household names now. And those partnerships have grown through a lot of changing dynamics in the marketplace all these years. Really strong relationship, brand, and scale. That, to us, is a given — that's necessary but not sufficient.

So we have the brand and the scale. With that as a given, what are the differentiators? It's three principles, three beliefs: One is that increased transparency will build better, deeper partnerships with our clients. We want to be at the forefront of that. We've positioned ourselves to be at the forefront of that. We think as a result of that, we'll grow, we'll gain share.

The second principle being this heritage of believing that content brings connectivity. Part of the valuing of the partnership is being able to bring industry-leading thought leadership to the client — whether you're talking about the capital-solutions team, whether you're talking about market color, desk color. But just being there and partnering with the client for a lot of the evolving needs with respect to that leadership concept and data science.

The third piece being this continued laser-like focus on client service. So again, getting at this partnership theme. What will continue to drive deeper, stronger partnerships with our clients is this focus on client service.
Everyone one of our clients feels like they're our only client and we bring the firm to them.

How technology — and "the electronification of prime financing" — is changing the industry, shining a light on price discovery, and making transparency from prime brokers increasingly important.

For many years, there's been a closed ecosystem where there are high barriers to entry in the business — an industry with high barriers to entry where traditionally there hadn't been the same level of investment in technology as you see across markets. The lack of investment in technology and how these guys communicate with each other — both prime brokers and hedge funds, as well as between prime brokers and securities and agent lenders — in both of these interactions, how communication happens, negotiation happens, the lack of technology has meant that these processes and these communication channels and negotiation opportunities are more iterative, manual, and ad hoc. What that's meant, big picture, is less of an ability to optimize on a lot of the commercial factors that drive these decisions. You get for example pricing that's imprecise and bulk pricing.

What that means is, historically, across the industry, when folks have chosen prime brokers, relationships and financing decisions are based more on operational ease, how easy it is to work with someone. Relationships, institutional memory, muscle memory, all of that.

What we're seeing happen in the industry is you've got players across the spectrum who are increasingly investing in technology and what we call "the electronification of prime financing." As these guys are investing in how they communicate with their PBs, and as the PBs are investing in how they're receiving and sending communications and negotiating, you have a lot of processes that are much more real time and much more dynamic, and it can result in a lot more precision around price discovery and price transparency.

You're basically furthering people's ability to optimize across a range of factors as they make their financing decisions. So what does that generally mean? That the industry is moving toward best execution. So whereas before you're more focused on institutional relationships or operational ease, now with increased transparency you can actually base more of your financing decisions on actual commercial factors as well as attributes — rates, availability, stability.

We think there's this inexorable movement toward electronification and toward transparency. We think the transparency is really important, and we want to be at the forefront of this evolution because we think the increased transparency will drive deeper, better partnerships with our clients. And that in turn, as we embrace this and we embrace the partnerships, will drive market share and growth for us.

This post has been updated from its original form.

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• Oracle's shares sunk 7% on Wednesday following news that the company would no longer report metrics for cloud, a segment once seen as vital to the company's growth.
• Oracle characterizes its new reporting structure as a more accurate way to reflect how customers use its software licenses. The company says that customers are buying more traditional licenses, but using them in the cloud. 
• Investors, many of whom see cloud growth a vital to their understanding of the company, were skeptical of Oracle's move.

Oracletraded down over 7% on Wednesday, following a rebellion from investors after the company made the decision to stop reporting specific metrics for its cloud business. That cloud business was once believed to be the database giant's saving grace against its younger, fast-growing rivals at Amazon and Google. 

In a call with investors Tuesday, CEO Safra Catz characterized the newly consolidated reporting structure as a more accurate way to understand Oracle's complex business, in which companies frequently buy on-premise licenses, but then go on to use those licenses for cloud services. 

"Previously, all of those licenses and its related support revenue would have been counted entirely as on-premise, which clearly it isn’t," Catz said.

But even the most bullish of investors were unconvinced of the move. Some analysts have suggested that even if the move is justified, it "overshadows" an otherwise successful earnings report.

"As investors seek additional information to try to garner confidence on the ability and timing of the higher-growth parts of the business overcoming the drags of declining legacy businesses, Oracle management went the opposite direction by consolidating revenue segment breakdown into just four categories," wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss, who favorably rates Oracle as overweight. 

Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow, who also rates Oracle as overweight, was more sympathetic to Oracle's decision, but wrote that it could take a toll on the stock price for weeks to come.

"We get management's dilemma here due to an increasingly blurred picture between what is cloud usage and what is on-premise usage," Lenschow wrote. "However, investors will likely need a few quarters to get comfortable here."

Sitting on the more skeptical end of the spectrum is Pat Walravens, an analyst with JMP Securities, who has a neutral rating on the stock. 

"The bear case on Oracle all along has been that they say the numbers the way they want to present them," Walravens told Business Insider. "When you look at the bottom line, there is really no growth."

Walravens highlighted Oracle's decelerating growth in the cloud, which fell from 51% year-over-year growth in Q1 2018 to just 21% in Q4 2018. 

But Walravens said that it's not just about cloud metrics. He sees the reporting change as part of a systemic issue with Oracle and he's interested in seeing a "pretty fundamental change" in how management approaches its business. 

"The way they think about their business is that it's about winning. Larry Ellison loves to win," Walravens said. "I think what you need to see them focus on is their customers winning. They really need to become more customer centric." 

Ultimately, though, even Walravens thinks there's no reason to panic, and that Oracle still has a lot going for it.

"It's super profitable, it generates a lot of free cash-flow and it's not very expensive," he said. 

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• Two former traders have been jailed for plotting to rig global interest rates.
• Christian Bittar and Philippe Moryoussef received combined sentences of more than 13 years for their role in conspiring to rig the Euribor rate.
• Bittar previously worked at Deutsche Bank, while Moryoussef was employed by Barclays.
• Euribor is the rate at which banks in the Eurozone lend money to one another.

LONDON (Reuters) - Two former traders, including a one-time star employee at Deutsche Bank, were handed jail terms totaling more than 13 years by a London court on Thursday for plotting to rig global interest rates.

Christian Bittar, 46, was sentenced to five years and four months, having pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to defraud by dishonestly manipulating the Euro interbank lending rate (Euribor).

Once of Deutsche Bank and described by investigators as one the world's best-paid traders, Bittarhad been in custody since then.

Philippe Moryoussef, who once worked at Barclays, was sentenced to eight years after a jury unanimously convicted of the same offence him last week. He did not attend court, having skipped bail and sought refuge in France.

The two Frenchmen, friends outside work who went skiing together, manipulated Euribor, a benchmark for rates on more than $150 trillion of financial contracts and consumer loans, between January 2005 and December 2009.

They are the first traders to be convicted of manipulating Euribor in a worldwide investigation that has also examined the rate's London equivalent Libor. Eleven banks and brokerages have paid around $9 billion to settle allegations of rate-rigging.

Barclays was the first to be fined in 2012. Its $453 million penalty sparked a backlash that forced out former CEO Bob Diamond, an overhaul of rate-setting rules and the British criminal inquiry.

Three years later, Deutsche Bank was ordered to pay $2.5 billion and was accused of obstructing regulators and "cultural failings". Its London-based subsidiary pleaded guilty to criminal wire fraud.

However, the outcome of the Euribor trial is a mixed victory for the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecutor. The SFO had originally wanted to prosecute 11 individuals in the case, but French and German authorities refused to extradite five of their citizens.

Moryoussef, who pleaded not guilty to the charge last year, left for France after Bittar's guilty plea was made public.

Moryoussef's Paris-based lawyer, Francois De Casto, has said his client is under the protection of French law and will eventually refer his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The SFO is also seeking a retrial for three other former Barclays traders after the jury was unable to reach a verdict in their case last week.

Italian-born Carlo Palombo, a former trader who reported to Moryoussef, Sisse Bohart, a Danish former junior trader and rate submitter, and her British one-time boss Colin Bermingham are charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud.

Euribor is calculated daily after a panel of banks submit their estimates for the costs of borrowing between banks over various time frames to an administrator.

Prosecutors alleged the former traders conspired with others at banks including Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Societe Generale to dishonestly skew rates designed to reflect interbank borrowing costs in order to bolster bets on interest rate derivatives.

The three have denied dishonesty, saying they learned on the job, communicated openly, were not told they were doing anything wrong, that requests fell within a range of equally valid rates and that they did not profit from the practice.

A sixth defendant, Deutsche Bank manager Achim Kraemer, was acquitted.

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• A star trader at Barclays has left the firm to join the proprietary trading shop Jane Street.
• Doug Schadewald, 28, managed an S&P 500 and VIX derivatives portfolio at Barclays.
• He's leaving to join an options trading team at Jane Street and help develop its index trading desk.
• He's the latest in a slew of equity derivatives traders to get poached in 2018 as volatility has stormed back.

A rising star on Barclays' equity derivatives desk, one of the most competitive corners of Wall Street in 2018, has left the company to join the secretive proprietary trading juggernaut Jane Street.

Doug Schadewald, a 28-year-old director who managed an S&P 500 and VIX derivatives portfolio at Barclays, resigned from the bank this week to join Jane Street, according to people familiar with the matter.

Spokesmen for Barclays and Jane Street declined to comment. Schadewald also declined to comment.

Equity derivatives traders have been in high demand in 2018 as volatility stormed back after laying dormant for much of 2016 and all of 2017, garnering shoutouts from top executives in quarterly analyst calls for boosting banks' earnings.

As of early July there had been more than 40 moves at the level of vice president or higher in equity derivatives in the US this year — a figure that continues to grow. Multiple factors are driving the trend, but the catalyst that opened the floodgates was the blowup of the Cboe Volatility Index — known as the VIX — earlier this year, according to industry insiders.

The blowup became a feeding frenzy for savvy, well-positioned traders who had suspected time was running out on the uber-popular trade of shorting volatility, leading to eye-popping profits for individual traders and teams — some north of $100 million on a single day. Schadewald and the index volatility team at Barclays would have been at the epicenter of the action those days as well and are said to have pulled in significant profits for the bank.

Traders who scored big during the volatility spike have become coveted, especially given that many expect volatility to remain elevated as central banks withdraw liquidity and continue to hike interest rates.

While most of the ensuing movement in equity derivatives has been bank-to-bank, Schadewald, who was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list this year, is leaving banking to join an options trading team at Jane Street and help develop its index trading desk.

Jane Street, a technology-focused firm that does proprietary trading similar to a hedge fund but that is also a market maker, has more than 700 employees and facilitates more than $13 billion in equity trading volumes a day, according to its website. It traded $5.6 trillion across all products in 2017.

Despite its outsized role in financial markets, the firm has traditionally kept a low profile. As has been reported by The New York Times, there's not much known about how the firm operates. Business Insider reported earlier this year that it had started trading bitcoin. 

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• Barclays has hired a new electronic equities executive from Credit Suisse, the latest in a string of investments in its stock-trading franchise.
• Kevin O'Connor is joining Barclays' equities business as head of electronic equities origination for the Americas, the British lender announced Monday.
• Barclays has been investing heavily in its equities franchise since Stephen Dainton took over as global head in September.
• It has added about 25 managing directors in its markets business since then. Several of those have strong connections to Credit Suisse, where Dainton previously worked.

Barclays has hired a new electronic equities executive as the bank continues to invest in its fast-growing stock-trading business.

Kevin O'Connor is joining Barclays' equities team as head of electronic equities origination for the Americas, the British lender announced Monday.

O'Connor joins from Credit Suisse, where he worked in the global markets division as the US head of sales for Advanced Execution Services — a role in which he oversaw sales, marketing, and distribution strategies for the electronic products in the Americas.

The new hire further bolsters Barclays' roster as it looks to add market share in its cash equities business.

"I am confident Kevin's appointment will help us build on momentum in our cash franchise by accelerating the development of differentiated products and services, and by driving greater client penetration," Nas Al-Khudairi, Barclays' global head of electronic equities and European head of cash equities, said in a statement.

Credit Suisse declined to comment.

O'Connor is the latest in a hiring spree of high-level executives conducted by Stephen Dainton, who joined in September from Credit Suisse as global head of equities.

Barclays has added about 25 managing directors in its markets business since then, with several of those having links to Credit Suisse, a competitor also undergoing a rebuild of its stock-trading franchise. Equities hires and promotions this year include:

• January: Daniel Nehren, head of statistical modeling and development, equities (ex-Citadel)
• February: Nas Al-Khudairi, global head of electronic equities and head of cash equities, EMEA (ex-Credit Suisse)
• May: Ron Trichon, head of cash equities sales in the Americas (internal promotion)
• May: Pete Ramsey, head of cash equities, Americas (internal promotion)
• May: Todd Sandoz, head of equities, Americas (ex-Nomura and Credit Suisse)
• May: Neil Staff, global head of exotics trading and head of derivatives trading EME (ex-Credit Suisse)
• May: Matt Pecot, head of equities in Asia Pacific (ex-Credit Suisse)
• June: Matthew Cousens, head of execution sales, EME (ex-Credit Suisse)

While the British bank is still in the early innings of its equities revamp, it has seen early returns on its investments.

While many banks had strong equities performance in the first quarter, no bank grew more precipitously than Barclays. The bank saw its equities revenue shoot up 43%, to $827 million, compared with $577 million in the first quarter of 2017, with derivatives and financing leading the way.

It was the world's fastest-growing equities business in the first quarter, according to public earnings results.

Most American banks reported strong equities performance in the second-quarter earnings results this month as well. Barclays will report second-quarter earnings August 2.

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• Barclays announced Wednesday it had poached a top investment banker from JPMorgan Chase to run its chemicals banking practice.
• Rob Jeffries is joining Barclays as vice chairman and global head of chemicals banking.
• He was co-head of the chemicals group at JPMorgan, where he'd worked since 2009.
• JPMorgan has promoted two new co-heads of its chemicals group in the wake of the departure.

Barclays has hired a senior banker from JPMorgan Chase to run its chemicals coverage globally.

Rob Jeffries is joining the British lender as vice chairman and global head of chemicals banking, Barclays announced Wednesday. He was previously the cohead of the chemicals group at JPMorgan, where he'd worked since 2009. 

“We are delighted to welcome Rob to Barclays. The Chemicals space represents an important opportunity-set for our investment banking business, and the team is achieving outstanding results and momentum in the sector," John Miller, Barclays global head of banking coverage, said in a statement. "Rob’s appointment will ensure that we continue to drive mind and market share with our clients.”

In the wake of Jeffries' departure, JPMorgan is promoting Chris Power and Jeff Price as co-heads of its chemicals group, according to people familiar with the matter. They'll share responsibilities with current group co-head Arkadi Nachimowski.

Jeffries' hire bolsters Barclays investment banking practice, which ranked 7th globally in 2017, according to Dealogic. The firm ranked third in chemicals banking through the first half of 2018. 

This post has been updated with additional information. 

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Bank of America has filled one of its most senior investment banking positions with a 25-year industry vet from Barclays. 

Jill Schwartz is joining Bank of America as the executive vice chairman of Global Corporate and Investment Banking, according to a memo from investment bank head Christian Meissner obtained by Business Insider.  

Schwartz joins from Barclays, where she held several senior roles since joining in 2010, most recently as global head of leveraged finance. Before that, she spent 18 years at JPMorgan. 

Here's the full memo: 

A message from Christian Meissner, head of Global Corporate & Investment Banking

To: Global Corporate & Investment Banking employees

I am pleased to announce that Jill Schwartz has been appointed executive vice chairman of Global Corporate & Investment Banking. She will join the firm this fall, be based in New York and report to me. Jill will be responsible for deepening client relationships globally across Global Corporate & Investment Banking and driving greater collaboration across our capital markets products, including a focus on capital structure, financing and risk management expertise to better service our clients.

A seasoned banker with more than 25 years of experience and leadership skills, Jill joins us from Barclays Capital, where she served as global head of Leveraged Finance and head of Barclays International Diversity Council. Prior to that, she held a variety of senior roles, including co-head of Debt Capital Markets & Risk Solutions as well as head of Americas Risk Solutions in addition to senior positions within Global Commodities and Global Rates and Currencies. Prior to joining Barclays, Jill was at JP Morgan for 18 years in a variety of markets roles. 

Jill’s depth of experience and expertise spanning Global Banking and Markets will be a valuable addition to our leading franchise.  

Please join me in welcoming Jill to the firm.

See also:

• Barclays poached a top investment banker from JPMorgan as its new global head of chemicals
• Barclays, which has the world's fastest-growing equities business, has raided Credit Suisse yet again for a senior hire

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• Barclays says European stocks have big upside going forward, with the UK looking particularly attractive.
• That's partly due to the weaker British pound being a positive driver for the UK's benchmark share index, the FTSE 100.
• "The region has underperformed the global benchmark by 30% since 2012 and appears to be a consensus underweight," a Barclays team led by Emmanuel Cau said. "Relative to the rest of Europe, UK stocks have stabilised recently."

LONDON — With eight months to go until Britain officially leaves the European Union, there is still no sign of a deal being struck between the two sides. Progress is so slow that many are now speculating that no deal will be reached and the UK could drop out of the bloc with no fallback option of any sort.

That speculation, however, hasn't stopped Barclays from arguing that British stocks could make investors a killing going forward. In a note circulated to clients on Monday, Barclays said that it sees value across the whole of Europe, but particularly in the UK, for a number of reasons.

Updating its European equity strategy, a team from the bank led by Emmanuel Cau said investors in Europe should "hold their nerve" because the market still has further to rise, before specifically picking the UK as a buying opportunity.

Cau and his team, which includes analysts Sarah Wilkinson and Magesh Kumar Chandrasekaran, identified five reasons for their confidence in European stocks, which are as follows:

1. "Barclays forecasts global GDP growth to stay resilient at around a 4% pace and developed market activity to stabilize following a soft H1, despite the potential drag from trade."
2. "Earnings are healthy and elevated margins coupled with strong pricing power provide some cushion against higher input costs associated with tariffs," while results in the second quarter were "reassuring."
3. "P/E multiples have de-rated to mid-cycle levels and the yield gap still favours equities over bonds."
4. "Investors have de-risked, sentiment is cautious and Q4 seasonality is positive."
5. "Foreign exchange markets are "turning into a tailwind again for the Eurozone and UK."

Turning to the UK, Cau and his team identified the continued weakness of the British pound thanks to uncertainty over Brexit as a reason for buying UK-listed stocks. After a rollercoaster two years, the pound is around 11% lower against the dollar compared to its pre-referendum level, and is currently trading at $1.31.

"We are overweight UK equities within our Pan-European coverage universe," they wrote.

"The region has underperformed the global benchmark by 30% since 2012 and appears to be a consensus underweight. Relative to the rest of Europe, UK stocks have stabilised recently."

Part of Barclays' argument is couched in the fact that a weak pound tends to mean a strong UK stock market. That is because it is heavily skewed towards companies that don't actually make their money in the UK. This phenomenon was witnessed in the months after the referendum when UK stocks hit record highs numerous times as the pound continued to weaken.

The FTSE 100 index, for example, contains miners, oil firms, and pharmaceutical giants, with around two-thirds of all revenues for companies on the index derived from abroad, meaning a weak pound makes them more profitable.

"We advise going long UK stocks, but FX hedged. There is indeed a clear negative correlation between the relative performance of UK equities and GBP historically," Cau's note said.

"A weaker GBP is thus a positive for UK large caps’ earnings and could lead to an uptick in EPS revisions ahead," he continued, pointing to the chart below:

The pound's weakness is not over yet, Cau and his team say, citing the work of their colleagues in forex strategy. That means a possible further boost for UK stocks, making them an even more attractive investment.

"Our FX strategists expect further weakening in the pound over the coming months, partly due to their bullish view on the dollar but also because of the Brexit uncertainty," the note said.

"GBP has already fallen a lot since the EU referendum two years ago, but the current political deadlock does not inspire confidence as we approach the March 2019 deadline, in our view."

SEE ALSO: A top JPMorgan strategist shares the one word investors need to know to get ahead in the 'extreme' market

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• Barclays Q2 pre-tax profits rise 44%, while income climbs 10%.
• The bank had a strong performance at its investment bank and also benefitted from lower impairment costs.

LONDON — Barclays reported a strong set of second-quarter results on Thursday, including solid numbers from its under-fire investment banking unit.

Here are the top-line numbers from Barclays results for the three months to June:

• Income: Up 10% to £5.6 billion
• Pre-tax profit: Up 44% to £2 billion
• Costs: Down 3% to £3.3 billion
• Return on equity: 12.3%

The return of volatility this year helped markets income at Barclays' investment bank increase by 11%, with a big uptick in derivatives and equity financing. The results will buoy the bank's management which is facing pressure from activist investor Edward Bramson over the investment banking unit.

Bramson wants to shut almost all trading activity at Barclays' investment bank as part of plans to cut costs and boost returns. Barclays' trading income rose 13% in the first half of the year to £2.5 billion.

Laith Khalaf, a senior analyst at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The positive performance of the investment bank will help to fend off the advances of activist investor Edward Bramson, who has taken a 5% stake in Barclays and reportedly wants to slim down the division.

"However it’s been achieved against a backdrop of good times across the US investment banking sector, and anyone can make hay when the sun is shining."

The group's second-quarter performance was helped by a big decline in conduct and litigation costs in the quarter, down to £81 million from £715 million a year earlier.

CEO Jes Staley said in the accompanying half-year report: "The second quarter, where we generated a Group RoTE of 12.3%, underlines the growing pace of delivery at Barclays. This is a business which is performing well, having addressed the challenges of the last decade."

Pre-tax profit across the first-half of 2018 fell by 28% to £1.6 billion, mostly due to conduct and litigation costs. When these are excluded, profit rose 20% to £3.7 billion.

Jefferies analyst Joseph Dickerson and his team said in a note: "Q2 results show a much better impairment performance and solid delivery across business segments. We see consensus drifting higher despite a mixed cost guide."

Despite the strong performance, Barclays shares are trading down 0.3% after just over half an hour of trade on the London Stock Exchange.

SEE ALSO: Barclays activist Bramson eyes trading shutdown at under-fire investment bank

DON'T MISS: Barclays has reportedly 'kicked around' the idea of merging with Standard Chartered

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• Barclays has taken a stake in and partnered with UK SME lender MarketInvoice.
• It is one of a number of recent partnerships between established banks and fintech startups.
• Banks used to either buy or build new products and services but are increasingly favouring partnerships, realising they can't be experts at everything.

LONDON — Not so long ago, most banks took one of two approaches when launching new products and services: build or buy.

Increasingly, however, there's a third way: partner.

Barclays announced on Thursday that it has taken a stake in online small business lender MarketInvoice and is partnering with the startup to offer MarketInvoice's lending capabilities to its small business clients.

London-headquartered MarketInvoice, founded in 2011, offers invoice factoring and lines of credit to small and medium-sized businesses. It has lent over £2.7 billion to date.

Barclays said in a release that the tie-up is part of its "plans to invest in new business models for growth, and MarketInvoice’s ambition to broaden its reach across the UK." Crucially, Barclays has only taken what it calls a "significant minority" stake, rather than a controlling ownership holding. It means MarketInvoice should continue to operate at somewhat of an arm's length.

Barclays isn't the first to turn to an innovative startup to help them power growth through partnerships. Spanish bank Santander signed a deal with online lender Kabbage in 2016, and JPMorgan has had a small business lending tie-up with OnDeck Capital since 2015, for example.

Banks are embracing the old maxim: if you can't beat them, join them. Rather than spend millions building out new business lines to compete with these upstarts, banks are deciding instead that it's easier to simply use the resources that these companies have developed.

In the past, this has generally led to acquisitions of the most promising challengers. But there's a growing sense that this approach can often stifle the very innovation that made a startup so compelling. In some cases, it can also turn out to be a costly mistake. Spanish bank BBVA last year had to take a $60 million write-down on its $117 million 2014 acquisition of US digital bank Simple, for example.

Partnership offers a "best of both worlds" approach — access to the innovative products and services without taking on as much of the risk (there is of course still a reputational risk associated with a partnership). These deals also benefit the startups by potentially kicking their growth up a gear.

More broadly, this trend speaks to the post-financial crisis mood within banking. Lenders that once sort to be financial goliaths now accept that they can't be all things to all people. HSBC is focusing on international trade and UBS is going back to its focus on wealth management, for example.

By partnering with startups that can fill the gaps, banks can keep their clients happy by referring them on and potentially earning a small commission. Better than simply saying, sorry, can't help.

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• Barclays stock-trading team is the fastest growing on the planet so far in 2018. 
• The bank reported second quarter results Thursday, growing its equities business 37% to $807 million.
• No other major bank's stock-trading unit grew faster in the second quarter.
• It's the second straight quarter of rapid growth for Barclays' stock-trading team, which the bank has been investing in heavily under CEO Jes Staley with 35 new outside hires so far this year. 

The hottest stock-trading team on the planet in 2018 isn't one of Wall Street's giants from the United States. 

Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs may dominate the equities industry in terms of raw market share, but British lender Barclays has the fastest-growing operation in the business so far this year.

The bank reported stellar second quarter earnings results Thursday, and its equities business was a key reason why, growing to $807 million from $588 million in 2017 — a 37% increase.

No other major bank's stock-trading team grew faster in the second quarter.

Barclays' gains easily outpaced those of European competitors Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and UBS. And while its equities business is still much smaller than those of its US peers in terms of revenue, it grew more than any of them and is within shouting distance of Citigroup, which posted $864 million in second quarter revenues.

"We obviously feel actually very good about our markets business. I think you've seen in our relative revenue performance that we believe we've taken a bit of market share again in the second quarter after taking some market share in the first quarter and in the fourth quarter," CFO Tushar Morzaria said during a call with analysts Thursday. "I'm really pleased with our performance in equities."

Barclays attributed the success primarily to strong performance in financing and equity derivatives, a product line that thrives on volatility, which has roared back in 2018.

The return of market volatility — which was absent much of 2016 and almost all of 2017 — has revived banks' stock-trading businesses across Wall Street, though none have benefited as much as Barclays. 

It's the second straight quarter of rapid growth for the bank's stock-trading team, which grew 43% to $827 million in the first quarter — the most of any bank during that period as well.

The division has struggled in recent years and in 2016 said it would exit its Asian cash equities business. But lately under CEO Jes Staley it has focused on bringing on new talent and investing in technology, which has helped boost its electronic trading volumes. In September 2017, Barclays brought in Stephen Dainton, formerly of Credit Suisse, as global equities chief, and Dainton has been on a hiring spree since.

In 2018 he's bolstered his equities roster with 35 new outside hires, according to the bank, including Nas Al-Khudairi, formerly of Credit Suisse, as global head of electronic equities and head of cash equities in Europe; Todd Sandoz, formerly of Nomura, as head of equities in the Americas; and Neil Staff, formerly of Credit Suisse, as global head of exotics trading and head of derivatives trading in Europe. 

So far, the investments appear to paying off, though it remains to be seen whether the gains will continue through the second half of the year. 

The bank cautioned that July was a subdued month for volatility, a trend that would put a damper on Wall Street's stock-trading comeback if it continues.  

But for now, Barclays holds claim to the fastest-growing equities business in the world.

See also:

• Barclays, which has the world's fastest-growing equities business, has raided Credit Suisse yet again for a senior hire
• A rising star on Barclays' trading desk just quit to join a secretive Wall Street trading juggernaut

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• At least two people have been working on a digital asset project at Barclays, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
• One says he's been "hired to produce a business plan for integrating a digital assets trading desk into Barclays' markets business."
• The bank, however, said it had no plans to launch a crypto trading desk.
• Investment banks across the industry have been assessing the viability of getting into crypto in one way or another.

LONDON — Barclays appears to have had at least two former traders looking at the viability of a cryptocurrency trading desk within the firm's investment bank.

Matthieu Jobbe Duval and Chris Tyrer have been working on a "digital asset project" since January, according to their LinkedIn profiles. A source told Business Insider the two had been looking at cryptocurrencies.

Tyrer, formerly the global head of energy trading at Barclays, is the head of the digital assets project, according to his LinkedIn profile, while Duval is a consultant on the project.

Duval, a former Barclays oil trader, said on his LinkedIn profile that he had been "hired to produce a business plan for integrating a digital assets trading desk into Barclays' markets business: revenue opportunity, competitive landscape, budgeting and planning for delivery, I.T. buildout, capital & balance sheet impact."

Duval removed the listing from his LinkedIn profile after Business Insider approached the bank for comment. Duval told Business Insider the details listed on his profile were "accurate" but declined to comment further.

Tyrer declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

A Barclays spokesman said the bank had no plans to launch a crypto trading desk but confirmed Tyrer and Duval had been working at the bank.

Bloomberg reported in April that Barclays was talking to clients about whether they would be interested in trading cryptocurrencies.

Barclays' exploratory work comes as many major investment banks rush to get a handle on the new world of cryptocurrencies, which have reaped huge fortunes for some but carry large risks. Goldman Sachs is reportedly planning to set up a bitcoin trading desk,JPMorgan recently appointed its first head of crypto-asset strategy,and Morgan Stanley recently poached a 12-year Credit Suisse veteran to be its head of digital asset markets.

Investment banks are attracted by the eye-catching returns of bitcoin in 2017 and have begun to seriously assess cryptos as a potential new asset class despite poor price performance this year.

An investor who follows the space closely told Business Insider: "Most banks are working on something. I suspect it takes a long time before the main committees of the bank will accept crypto though."

SEE ALSO: Morgan Stanley has poached a Credit Suisse crypto banker to head 'digital asset markets'

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• Investors have pulled $35 billion from European equities this year and $51 billion from European funds, according to Barclays data.
• UK funds have seen outflows of over 6% of assets under management since the Brexit vote.

LONDON — Global investors are fleeing Europe in droves, according to Barclays.

Analyst Magesh Kumar Chandrasekaran and the European Equity Strategy team at the investment bank said in a note sent to clients on Thursday that billions have been pulled from European stock markets and funds in 2018.

Europe has seen the highest equity outflows so far this year of any major market. Investors have pulled $35 billion from European equities so far in 2018, the bank said

Barclays added: "European funds have seen redemptions for twenty-one consecutive weeks, worth $51 billn since the start of March this year. These redemptions have completely wiped out the inflows Europe receivedsince 2017."

UK funds have suffered particularly badly. The bank writes: "Within Europe, outflows from the UK have been more severe compared to the rest of Europe. UK funds have seen outflows of more than 6% of AUM since the Brexit referendum."

UK funds have seen six weeks of fund outflows and $3.8 billion was pulled in the last week alone, according to Barclays data.

Globally, flows into equities have been flat over the last month and bonds saw $17 billion of inflows. $104 billion has been invested into equities so far this year, compared to $65 billion for bonds.

"Among regions, the US was the only major market to have received meaningful equity inflows over the last four weeks," the team said. "As trade war-related uncertainties increased in May, EM [emerging markets] funds saw $17bn worth of outflows. However, last week, EM funds received inflows for the first time in eleven weeks."

Investors are also shifting money from active funds to passive funds, with $82 billion shifting between the two strategies.

SEE ALSO: One in 2 ICOs failed in the 2nd quarter — and those that succeeded suffered huge losses

DON'T MISS: Barclays traders say they're building out a crypto desk— but the bank says it has nothing in the works

NEXT UP: Barclays is teaming up with a startup online lender — and it points to a growing trend for banks

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• Goldman Sachs has hired senior dealmaker Jonathan Piazza to bolster its healthcare coverage. 
• Prior to Goldman, Piazza spent a decade in investment banking with Barclays. 
• It's been a monster year for mergers and acquisitions, and healthcare M&A has been especially hot. 
• Goldman is tapping into this deals fervor by hiring a slew of senior dealmakers from rival firms — something it rarely used to do. 

Goldman Sachs has hired a senior dealmaker away from Barclays to bolster its healthcare coverage.

Jonathan Piazza, a managing director in Barclays healthcare investment banking practice, is leaving to join Goldman Sachs, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Piazza had been with Barclays for a decade, joining in 2008 amid the demise of Lehman Brothers, where he worked from 2005 until 2008, according to LinkedIn and Finra records. 

Barclays declined to comment. Goldman Sachs and Piazza did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Among the deals Piazza has worked on: Gilead's $11 billion acquisition of drugmaker Pharmasset in 2011. The deal was seen as a risky move at the time but yielded blockbuster drugs Harvoni and Sovaldi, hepatitis C treatments that have generated tens of billions in sales for Gilead. 

Worldwide M&A activity has totaled $2.5 trillion during the first half of 2018, the strongest start to a year for deals in history. Healthcare was among the most active sectors for M&A, comprising about 13% of this activity thanks to deals such as Takeda's $62 billion takeover of Shire and Cigna's $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts. 

Goldman is tapping into this deals fervor by hiring a slew of senior dealmakers from rival firms. While the firm rarely used to hire from the outside, among the recent hires from other banks include senior tech banker Kurt Simon from JPMorgan; consumer banker Ben Frost from Morgan Stanley; and industrials banker Chris Gallea from JPMorgan. 

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• The collapse of the Turkish lira is the big story in global markets.
• A big winner has been Deutsche Bank's CEEMEA desk, which made $35 million over two weeks on the back of emerging market turmoil, according to Bloomberg.
• But a Barclays trader lost $19 million trading Turkish bonds over three days.
• Millennial investors in the US have also been stung by the turmoil.

Markets have been gripped by the developing crisis in Turkey over the last few weeks.

The country's currency plummet, contagion spread to other emerging markets, and a war of words broke out between President Erdogan and President Trump.

Traders love a crisis. A crisis tends to create volatility, which creates the opportunity to make larger sums of money by betting on price moves. The reverse, of course, is also true: losses tend to be greater in times of volatility.

It's no different with the Turkey situation, with several media reports of large financial institutions making and losing large sums of money.

The biggest win reported so far is at Deutsche Bank, where a group of fixed income traders made a profit of $35 million in less than two weeks, according to a report published by Bloomberg.

The traders, who trade from a desk "focused on central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa," made as much as $10 million in a single day on August 10, which saw the biggest fall in the Turkish lira, Bloomberg's story says citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Prior to the lira's slump, the team had positioned itself to profit from falling asset prices across the region, although it is not believed that they had placed any trades specifically focused on the Turkish crisis.

The desk from which the profits came has reportedly made $135 million this year, trading products connected to credit in the region.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

But not everyone is having a good time

Bloomberg also reports that a senior trader at Barclays lost around $19 million over the course of three days trading Turkish bonds.

That figure is relatively small in the grand scheme of Barclays' emerging market corporate fixed-income trading operation, from which the bank makes revenues of around $100 million per year, but still represents a significant amount of money.

"Barclays has an established and diversified credit business with all our trading positions hedged across the business," the bank said in a statement provided to Bloomberg. It added that its Turkish trading operation "represents a very small part of our overall credit business."

Barclays declined to comment further when contacted by Business Insider.

Other investors to be stung by the Turkey crisis include millennials using popular platforms like Betterment and Wealthfront. The businesses, which are two of the most popular online investment platforms in the US, are both top 10 holders of the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets exchange-traded fund.

The fund makes up as much as 15% of some portfolios on Betterment. The Vanguard ETF has lost more than 7% of its value since the start of August.

Turkey's crisis has spiralled in recent weeks, with a sharp fall in the Turkish lira the most obvious impact.

The lira's initial slide came amid rising tensions between the US and Erdogan over trade. US President Donald Trump authorized increased tariffs against Turkey on Friday in response to Turkey's unwillingness to release an American evangelical pastor, Andrew Brunson, who has been imprisoned in the country since late 2016.

SEE ALSO: Turkey is blaming social media and 'fabricated news' for the collapse of its currency

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• Most cards are far from a democracy, but the unique Barclaycard Ring Mastercard put the card's benefits in the hands of its users. But do those benefits make sense for you?
• The Barclaycard Ring offers low fees that make it an enticing option for balance transfers, occasional international travel, and no annual fee.
• This card charges a very low APR that is the same for purchase, balance transfer, and cash advance transactions.
• Pay 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months on transfers completed with 45 days of opening a new account.

Barclays, or Barclaycard, offers several useful credit cards depending on your needs and goals. If your focus is a low interest rate and low fees, the Barclays Ring credit card may be a great option for your wallet.

While this card does offer low costs, it does not offer any credit card rewards. If you want to earn miles or points for free travel or cash back on every purchase, Ring is not the right fit. This is why it is important to understand your credit and your needs from a card before signing up.

Due to the low fees and interest rates, this card is most appealing for someone looking to consolidate and pay off credit card debt with lower interest or someone who wants a credit card for occasional purchases to build credit or protect their debit card and bank account data when shopping online or while traveling.

Barclays Ring as a debt consolidation and pay-off engine

If you have a long history with credit cards, you may have built up a few balances over time that keep you paying every month. Wouldn't it be great to consolidate those payments into one? Even better, what if you could pause interest for one year so all of your payments go right into the principal balance? With this card, you can do both!

The Barclaycard Ring offers new cardholders 0% APR for 12 months on balance transfers completed within 45 days of opening a new account. Do note there is a 3% balance transfer fee ($5 minimum) for transfers completed within the first 45 days. After that, there is no balance transfer fee for future transfers but you would have to pay interest.

If you don't pay off the balances by the time 12 months is up, interest will kick in. But this card charges a competitive 13.74% variable rate APR. Interest rates can change at any time with market rates, but you'll pay less than most competing credit cards charge with the Ring credit card.

Read more: Barclays has brought back one of its most popular credit cards — and the sign-up bonus is at an all-time high

Build credit with an almost no-fee card

This credit card charges very few fees. Compared to the typical credit card, it feels like you pay nothing outside of interest, when it applies. There are only a couple of circumstances where you would pay any fees with this credit card.

There is no annual fee, no balance transfer fee after 45 days, and no foreign transaction fee. Cash advances cost just $3 each, which is a bargain compared to the typical 5% and $10 minimum. Free balance transfers after 45 days may be another opportunity for huge savings.

Late and returned payments cost up to $27 per occurrence, but you can avoid those by paying on time and only paying when you have enough cash in the bank to cover your payment. But those are things you should be doing anyway.

As long as you pay on time and avoid cash advances and balance transfers, you will never have to pay any fees for this credit card.

Get credit card protections with no extra hassles

Some people who are good with their money don't like credit cards because they focus on the costs rather than the benefits. As long as you pay off your card balance in full every month by the due date, you'll never have to pay any credit card interest.

But there are still good reasons to use a credit card outside of the borrowing features. When used responsibly, credit cards can build your credit. Further, they are the best tool to protect yourself from payment fraud anywhere you shop, online or at brick-and-mortar stores.

Because this card has no annual fee, you could keep it as an emergency card with no balance at no cost to you. Every month it sits there with no balance, it helps your credit score a little bit as it shows a positive payment history and low balance in proportion to your limits. That is a good thing for anyone who ever plans to buy a home or car with a loan in the future.

Credit cards also offer important protections. If you use a debit card for a purchase and a data thief gets ahold of your information, they can drain your bank account when making a purchase. With a credit card, you can just make a phone call to report the fraud and don't have to pay a cent.

Read more: 11 lucrative credit card deals you can get when opening a new card in August — including a rare 100,000-point offer

Barclays Ring: The best credit card for people who don't like credit cards

The simplicity, low cost, and benefits of this card make it a great option for anyone who wants to keep their costs as low as possible when dealing with credit. And if you don't like a feature or want to see something new, you get access to send card suggestions to community managers responsible for the Ring credit card. That is exactly how this card became so great to begin with!

Young professional cardholders enjoy this card for its ease-of-use and low costs. Retirees and those with homes paid off may enjoy using this account for purchase protections and keeping a healthy credit profile after paying off their home.

Personally, this card is not a great choice for my needs as I'm more focused on travel rewards. Others may be interested in cash back.

If rewards are not the main thing you look for in a card, you should look toward the Barclaycard Ring for its low fees and rates. That combination makes the card a winner.

Click here to learn more about the Barclaycard Ring Mastercard.

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• Executives from JPMorgan, Citi, and Barclays Ireland gave evidence to UK MPs on Tuesday about the impact of Brexit on their industry.
• All three said their banks expect just hundreds of roles to be moved out of London in the immediate aftermath of Brexit.
• The figures suggest that initial estimates of Brexit job losses — some of which were as high as 40,000 — could be wide of the mark.
• But JPMorgan's Mark Garvin warned that the figures he offered were just "day one" moves and he can "envision a scenario where those numbers could be substantially larger."

Executives from three major banks said on Tuesday they expect to move just several hundred jobs out of Britain in the immediate aftermath of Brexit, far fewer than consultants and industry bodies had initially estimated.

Executives from Citi abd Barclays Ireland told UK MPs serving on Parliament's Treasury Select Committee that each bank currently expects to move only around 150 roles out of Britain due to Brexit. An executive from JPMorgan said the bank expects to move hundreds of roles.

Between them, the three banks employ over 50,000 people in the UK.

However, while the banks gave low numbers for initial job losses, JPMorgan's Mark Garvin said job moves could become "substantially larger" over time.

'Small numbers'

Garvin, vice chairman of JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank, said earlier in the session that JPMorgan expects job moves out of the UK "in the hundreds" in the first few years after Brexit. Around 400 roles are understood to be under consideration for relocation.

James Bardrick, head of Citi UK and CEO of Citigroup Global Markets, told MPs in the same session that his bank currently estimates that 150 of its 9,000 UK jobs will be relocated to Europe.

"This is more about putting the right people in the right places for the right roles rather than any wholesale change," Bardrick said.

Kevin Wall, CEO of Barclays Ireland, said 150 roles would likely move from London to Europe as a result of Brexit, adding that 150 new roles would also need to be created as a result of Brexit.

"Those are small numbers," Wall said. Barclays employs around 30,000 people in the UK.

The figures, which amount to around 450 jobs across the three banks, are far smaller than initial estimates for job losses in UK financial services as a result of Brexit.

The Bank of England estimated last year that 10,000 banking jobs could be lost in UK financial services on the first day after Brexit. Jeremy Browne, the City of London corporation's special envoy for Europe, estimated in 2016 that the number could be as high as 16,000.

Think tanks and consultancies have been even more bearish. Oliver Wyman estimated last year that as many as 40,000 investment banking jobs may have to be moved to Europe post-Brexit. Brussels-based think tank Bruegel put the figure at 30,000.

'We just don't know what will happen in the future'

Despite the lower than forecast job move numbers, Garvin said: "One has to think of this as a process. It's not a one-off big bang event, it's a multi-year process. These are what I would call 'day one'-type arrangements and it's very hard to speculate on what ultimately may transpire. That will be a function of a number of things.

"First of all, it will be a function of the ultimate arrangements that prevail between this country and the EU. Number two, it will be a factor of what our regulators require ... And finally, potential policy changes in both of these areas.

"These are the answers today but it's difficult to speculate what they might be in the future and one could envision a scenario where those numbers could be substantially larger. But that's as I said highly speculative."

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said at the start of the year that as many as 4,000 of JPMorgan's 16,000 UK roles could be forced out of the UK if Britain doesn't retain preferential access to the EU market after Brexit.

Questioned on the difference between this 4,000 number and Garvin's estimates, Garvin said: "The two numbers are not inconsistent. It's a matter of time. We just don't know what will happen in the future."

'Our London operation is a very, very important'

Citi's Bardrick was more optimistic, telling MPs: "The numbers we're giving and the plans we've made are for the worst case. When we say 150, 200 people, that's our worst case."

Bardrick also emphasised that London would remain a major hub for Citi's operations globally regardless of the outcome of Brexit.

"Our London operation is a very, very important part of our global organisation," Bardrick said.

"A significant part of it relates to the services and provision of services and products to clients in the EU. But an even larger bit of it is around our UK and rest of the world activities. It is a truly global operation."

He added: "London will remain the regional headquarters for our group for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, from where we manager 55 country franchises. It will remain the headquarters for a number of our most important product groups globally."

SEE ALSO: JPMorgan CEO Dimon warns more than 4,000 UK jobs could go in a bad Brexit scenario

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NEXT UP: Brussels think tank: 'Hard Brexit' could kill 30,000 London jobs and £1.5 trillion of assets

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• Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond thinks the post-financial crisis environment has led to banks taking too few risks.
• "If they are totally without risk, they are not helping create jobs and economic growth," Diamond said in an interview with the BBC.
• Diamond was once labelled the "unacceptable face of banking" by Labour minister Peter Mandelson.

With the 10-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers just two days away, many key figures from the financial crisis have taken the opportunity in recent days to reflect on their part in it.

Most have spoken of their regrets from the time, but largely struck a positive tone on the changes to the financial system that have occurred since then to make the world safer.

Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond has struck a slightly different tone, however. He said in an interview on Thursday that banks need to be taking more risks today, not fewer.

"If they are totally without risk, they are not helping create jobs and economic growth,"Diamond said in an interview with the BBC.

"The culture of banking now is that if anyone makes a mistake they get fined — or the bank is in trouble."

Diamond, was head of Barclays Capital arm during the crisis, before becoming its CEO in 2011. During his time at the bank, Labour party grandee Peter Mandelson famously labelled him the "unacceptable face of banking."

He left Barclays in 2012 amid the LIBOR rigging scandal and is now involved with Atlas Mara, a financial services firm focused on Africa, which he cofounded in 2013.

Diamond told the BBC that all banks should not be lumped together when it comes to assessing the crisis. British lenders like Barclays and HSBC should not be compared to those that needed government aid like Lloyds and RBS.

"I think HSBC and Barclays deserve credit for raising capital privately," he said. "People should be angry with RBS for failing in the way it did — ten years later people still haven't got their money back. Private investors who put money into Barclays have seen very good returns."

In need of funding during the crisis, Barclays turned to the wealthy middle eastern state of Qatar to secure a £12 billion ($15.6 billion) package. The deal was investigated by the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) after it emerged that Barclays provided a $3 billion loan to the state of Qatar in the same year. Charges of conspiracy to commit fraud were brought against the bank but thrown out earlier this year.

One of the biggest retrospective criticisms of financial institutions in the run-up to the crisis is that they had cultures that placed profits above anything else. Diamond has always denied that this was the case at Barclays, and used his BBC interview to reiterate that.

"I don't think the reprehensible behaviour of a few people out of 160,000 employees is representative of the culture we had at Barclays. I think we had a very strong culture," he said.

Diamond also defended himself and Barclays from accusations during the crisis that they were involved in "casino banking"— the now infamous charge levied by Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable in 2010 during his time as business secretary.

"Labels like casino banking are very pejorative and very unhelpful and don't describe the reality. Vince Cable was wrong," Diamond told the BBC.

"We have asset managers managing pension funds who need access to liquidity. We have companies hedging their foreign exchange exposure. Sit on a trading floor and you'll see the real value this brings to the economy."

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• Jon Scoffin, the cohead of Barclays' research division, is leaving the firm.
• The bank has also been slashing managing-director roles and other senior jobs as part of a broader reorganization that kicked off earlier this year.

LONDON — A shake-up of senior managers at Barclays continues as Jon Scoffin, the cohead of the bank's research business, is leaving.

Scoffin's departure was announced in an internal memo earlier this month from Tim Throsby, the head of the firm's corporate and investment bank, according to a person who has seen the memo.

Scoffin had coheaded the division with Jeff Meli, who will now run research on his own, the person said. Scoffin could not be reached for comment.

Scoffin started with Barclays' retail bank before joining the investment bank in 1989. In 2003, he relocated to Singapore, spending 11 years in Asia building the research platform. In 2014, Scoffin was named global head of equity research, and in 2015 he was named cohead of research alongside Meli.

Barclays is known as one of the more top-heavy firms in The City. While Throsby has named some top senior-level hires since joining in 2016, the bank has recently been slashing managing-director roles and other senior jobs as part of a broader reorganization that kicked off earlier this year. A strong set of second-quarter results, reported last month, has helped buoy management amid the staffing shake-up. The specific reason for Scoffin leaving is unclear.

The moves come amid a regulatory overhaul that is leading banks to take a harder look at spending on equity research divisions, after a European Union crackdown on trading and research fees came into effect in January.

The new rules, dubbed MiFID II, require that banks must charge separately for research. In the past, banks gave free research to fund managers to lure lucrative trading commissions.

Scoffin's move comes as the chief investment officer of Barclays International, Art Mbanefo, takes on more responsibilities. The remit of Mbanefo, who runs Barclays' Financing Resource Management team, will now include overseeing business managers and the office of the CEO, according to an announcement at the bank in late August.

A Barclays spokesman declined to comment on Scoffin or on the specifics of Mbanefo's new duties.

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