A branch of Barclays Bank is seen, in London, Britain, February 23, 2022.
A branch of Barclays Bank is seen, in London, Britain, February 23, 2022. Reuters / PETER NICHOLLS

Barclays Head of Macro Trading for EMEA and Asia Pacific, Nat Tyce, is leaving after more than 25 years, a staff memo seen by Reuters shows, after transforming the trading unit into one of the bank's highest-flying divisions.

The memo, which was signed by the bank's macro trading boss Michael Lublinsky and was distributed to staff in recent days, said Tyce had been "instrumental" in building and growing the macro franchise.

"Nat has been a deeply valued colleague on the Macro Management Committee, a close partner and friend to me and hundreds of colleagues during his tenure, and will be deeply missed at Barclays," the memo said.

A spokesperson for Barclays confirmed the authenticity of the memo but declined further comment. The spokesperson also declined to comment on Tyce's successor.

Tyce, who also serves as a director on the board of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Barclays' Fixed Income, currency and commodities (FICC) business, which includes macro trading, has been the powerhouse of its investment bank in recent years, accounting in 2020 for more than 5 billion pounds ($6 billion) of income.

That represents a third of the total delivered by its entire International division which houses the investment and corporate banking units.

But fortunes have waned more recently, with income slumping 33% last year to 3.4 billion pounds as investors traded less and interest rate spreads compressed, before rebounding slightly in the first quarter of this year.

The performance of teams led by veteran traders like Tyce was critical to Barclays' defence against former activist investor Edward Bramson, who ended a three-year campaign to radically downsize its investment bank in 2021.

Former CEO Jes Staley argued that full-service investment banks gave lenders a better chance of delivering strong returns in all economic cycles, with higher revenues from M&A, trading and restructuring likely to offset losses in credit cards, unsecured lending and mortgages.

Barclays' new CEO, C.S. Venkatakrishnan, is currently grappling with the aftermath of a trading mishap involving the unauthorised sales of around $15 billion worth of complex financial products.

Venkatakrishnan has commissioned an external investigation to uncover the causes of the blunder.

Separately, Barclays has hired Carl Scott to the role of head of EMEA rates trading and global head of counterparty risk trading, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Scott joins Barclays from Citadel Securities and will be based in London, reporting directly to Lublinksy.

($1 = 0.8274 pounds)