Barclays has created a new senior in-house legal role at Barclays UK, the retail banking franchise set up earlier this year in response to the UK's new ring-fencing regime.
Long-serving Barclays lawyer Paul Loftus, who has spent 13 years at the bank after joining from Clifford Chance in 2004, took up the position of head of legal for banking products and propositions at Barclays UK last month.
The new position has been created as the bank reshuffles its in-house legal team in preparation for fully ring-fencing its retail operations from its investment banking activities next April.
Barclays UK will transfer into the ring-fenced bank, which will provide day-to-day products and retail banking services to individuals and small businesses and will be independent from Barclays International, which will offer products and services to its corporate and investment banking clients.
In his new role Loftus will be responsible for Barclays' current and proposed regulated banking products in the UK, and for aspects of the bank's international and offshore operations.
He was previously head of legal for banking and customer & client experience, a role which he held for three and a half years, before which he spent three years as director of litigation and special investigations for the bank's retail and business division. He reports to Barclays UK general counsel Stephanie Pagni.
Pagni, who took up the role of Barclays UK GC in March, was previously global head of litigation, investigations and enforcement. She replaced former UK GC Mark Chapman, who left the bank after just a year in the role.
Barclays group GC Bob Hoyt will lead the Barclays Corporate & International legal division.
It is understood that the legal restructuring, which is ongoing, has not led to any job losses.
The ring-fencing reforms were announced in 2011 in Sir John Vickers' Independent Commission on Banking report, as part of a push to strengthen the UK's financial system following the crisis. The reforms are designed to protect consumers by ensuring that retail banking operations are shielded from any problems in a bank's investment banking business. Large banks are required to implement the reforms by 1 January 2019.
Barclays is understood to have turned to Slaughter and May and Addleshaw Goddard for advice on the ring-fencing process. Other law firms advising major banks on the process include Allen & Overy and Norton Rose Fulbright for HSBC and Linklaters for Lloyds.