Barclays boss backs greater co-operation between Northern cities as 'very intelligent'

Mr Staley was speaking after meeting with some Yorkshire’s top business leaders during a visit to the region, during which time the subject of the Northern Powerhouse was brought up.

He said: “I do think this idea of collaboration between finance industry and Government in order to support industries is terrific. From Manchester to Leeds to Liverpool I think this collaboration between the four pillars of Government, education, business and finance, is a very intelligent idea.

“There was a lot of discussion around a real high speed rail link between Leeds and Liverpool and what might that do in terms of driving more economic activity. And that sort of dialogue between the Governments listening, and financial firms hearing as well, is constructive.”

When asked if he supported plans for so-called HS3 in the north, he said: “It sounded very compelling, and part of the argument was about making Yorkshire itself more of an economic realm in its singularity as opposed to a federation of strong cities and being more unified economically, which seemed to make a lot of sense.”

Regarding plans to bolster Barclays digital offering, Mr Staley said: “One of the things that I believe in is that technology in its broadest sense is changing commerce and one of the great aspects of Yorkshire and the Northern UK is its educational system.

“We have 1,100 people working in all of the mortgage capabilities at Barclays bank across the whole of the United Kingdom, so all the applications development, all of the infrastructure, all of that is run in Leeds.

“We announced in the first quarter that, although we have reduced head count dramatically as we restructured the bank over the last couple of years, we are going to increase head count in the United Kingdom around technology, and a lot of that is based on the belief that we can get really good engineers from the United Kingdom education system which is very well represented in the northern UK.

“Getting access to that talent pool is very important for Barclays to stay competitive in this new world of financial technology and also give Barclays a competitive advantage in the UK, but also a lot of our technology is international.”

Mr Staley also had praise for the scale of Yorkshire’s economic offering.

He said: “One of the great things about coming to a place like this is that Barclays covers the entire waterfront. We bank consumers, we bank start-up businesses, we bank scale-up businesses becoming SMES, then they become mid-sized corporate clients and large-scale corporate clients, all the way to the biggest institutions in the country. And you see in a place like Yorkshire how the entire capability of the bank can be brought to bear and be a partner of economic growth.”

UK regulators are currently looking at allegations Mr Staley attempted to reveal the identity of whistle blower. When asked if he was hoping to be soon in a position to put the matter to bed, he said: “Let’s finish the investigation and then hopefully after that we will put it behind us.”