The newspaper reports that the trader has said that BarCap was the Wild Wild West – 'that’s what we called it, that’s how it was. That year especially. Commodities was the big thing to be in. Barclays was this old great institution, but it had turned into a bucket shop. We hired a bunch of quants (quantitative traders) to just dream up these products. Layers of complexity in each hedging product. Each layer created a new angle to take a turn.
Suddenly at BarCap we were handed all the corporate clients to sell to. We all talked about it like it was lambs to the slaughter'.
The newspaper also reports that Rich Ricci, head of Barclays’ investment bank, has ruled himself out of the running to replace Bob Diamond.
Ricci, one of former CEO Bob Diamond’s key lieutenants, is believed to have told friends that he neither wants the job, nor thinks it would be sensible for him to be appointed.
Ricci is instead said to want to focus on running the investment bank.
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