Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Britain's Barclays Plc, has named Mark Bamford as head of global syndicate to replace Geert Vinken, who is retiring.

BarCap is a major player in debt capital markets in Europe, ranking number two in Thomson's league tables for 2007 bond sales.

After eight years in the role, Vinken will leave BarCap at the end of March to pursue interests outside investment banking and to spend more time with his family, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Bamford, who is currently head of U.S. syndicate at BarCap, joined the bank in 2005 after 16 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a senior member of the North American finance group and prior to that led Goldman's European and Asian debt syndicate. (Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova, editing by Will Waterman)

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