JOHN McFARLANE: BARCLAYS BRACED FOR ‘MACK THE KNIFE’

John McFarlane

'Does he want to make the investment bank profitable or just run it down ?'

The Wall Street Journal reports that Barclays is bracing for the arrival of 'Mack the Knife'.

John McFarlane, a former Citigroup executive with a penchant for feng shui and playing the guitar, earned his nickname as a fearsome restructurer of ailing financial institutions in Asia, Australia and the U.K, often slicing investment-banking jobs along the way.

Next month he becomes chairman of Barclays.

Expectations are high. The silver-haired Scot could turbocharge Barclays’ shift away from investment banking, analysts say. 'The stock is rallying just because he is coming in', said Chirantan Barua, an analyst at Bernstein Research. 'But he faces a strategic dilemma: does he want to make the investment bank profitable or just run it down?'