Barclays 2015 Annual Report Download - page 28

26 I Barclays PLC Annual Report 2015 home.barclays/annualreport
Focus on core segments and markets
During 2015, your Board emphasised the need to focus resources on
areas that matter to the Group and to exit those that do not provide an
appropriate return. We approved the revised strategy to unlock greater
value from the Investment Bank. We discussed increasing the pace of
exit from Non-Core and during 2015 Barclays shrank non-core assets,
disposing of a number of businesses or asset portfolios, with a resulting
reduction in RWAs. These disposals included the sales of the Spanish,
Portuguese and Italian banking networks, the Index business, FirstPlus
mortgages, the Wealth business in the US and UK Secured Lending.
Generate shareholder value
While we recognise the importance of dividends in delivering returns to
shareholders, we have decided it would be prudent to scale back
dividends in 2016 and 2017. We are focused on improving returns to
enable future increases in the dividend and to fund growth. We also
progressed a number of options for increasing capital accretion over the
level achieved in recent years, including the release of capital from
underperforming business areas and a reduction in expenses driven by
savings from strategic cost programmes. The benefit from the latter,
however, was impacted by the costs of legacy conduct issues. In
addition, we explored a number of new ways to improve the cost:income
ratio, such as the increased deployment of technology in our core
businesses.
Instil a high performance culture with strong ethical values
To ensure we have the right balance of skills and experience to drive the
Group’s strategy to completion, we appointed new non-executive
Directors during 2015, in addition to the appointment of Jes Staley as the
new Group Chief Executive. As Chairman, I strive to instil a performance
culture with increased personal accountability to enable the organisation
to become more efficient and agile. Progress reports on our cultural
transformation during the year revealed that the factors contributing to
execution risk mainly derive from fairly simple cultural issues. As a result
your Board recommended a high-level single view of the portfolio of key
strategic initiatives to manage dependencies, harness potential
synergies and increase the speed of completion.
John McFarlane
Chairman
29 February 2016
You can read more about the work of your Board and its
Committees in the Governance section on home.barclays/
annualreport
Our corporate governance framework
What your Board does and how it does it
underpins the delivery of long-term sustainable
success. This creates the framework within
which the Executive can lead the business and
deliver the agreed strategy.
Leadership
Your Board provides challenge, oversight and advice to ensure that
Barclays is doing the right things in the right way. Your Board is also
attentive to the need to cultivate future leaders and ensure that robust
succession plans are in place.
Effectiveness
Your Board requires the right balance of expertise, skills, experience and
perspectives to be effective. It also needs to have the right information,
at the right time, so that it can engage deeply on how the business is
operating, how the Executive is performing and fully understand the
risks and major challenges the business is facing. The performance of
your Board, its Committees and each of the Directors is scrutinised each
year in the Board Effectiveness Review.
Risk management and control
Understanding and managing our risks and continuously improving our
controls are central to the delivery of our strategic aims. Your Board’s risk
committees play an active role in ensuring that Barclays undertakes
well-measured, profitable risk-taking activity that supports long-term
sustainable growth. During 2015, we simplified and streamlined the
structure of the Board’s risk committees. We disbanded the Board
Enterprise Wide Risk Committee and your Board assumed responsibility
for oversight of enterprise wide risk. We also revised the responsibilities
of the other Board-level risk committees so that the Board Risk
Committee took on responsibility for oversight of the capital and
financial implications of operational risk.
Remuneration
Your Board seeks to ensure that remuneration decisions are aligned with
and support the achievement of long-term value creation.
Engagement
Barclays’ wider societal responsibilities means it is attentive to a broad
set of stakeholders. Your Board undertakes regular engagement with
shareholders, investors and other stakeholders to maintain strong
relationships.
Your Board
John McFarlane (68) Group Chairman
Jes Staley (59) Group Chief Executive; Executive Director
Sir Gerry Grimstone (66) Deputy Chairman and
Senior Independent Director
Mike Ashley (61) Non-executive Director
Tim Breedon (58) Non-executive Director
Crawford Gillies (59) Non-executive Director
Reuben Jeffery III (62) Non-executive Director
Wendy Lucas-Bull (62) Non-executive Director
Tushar Morzaria (47) Group Finance Director; Executive Director
Dambisa Moyo (47) Non-executive Director
Frits van Paasschen (54) Non-executive Director
Diane de Saint Victor (61) Non-executive Director
Diane Schueneman (63) Non-executive Director
Steve Thieke (69) Non-executive Director
Your Board sets strategic direction and provides oversight and control…
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