Reuters reports that Richard Meddings, the finance director tipped as a possible contender for the role left open by last month's sudden exit of Bob Diamond, refused to be drawn specifically on the Barclays job.
'The stories that go around about executive changes are fairly frequent and we never comment on them', he said.
Peter Sands, Standard Chartered's Chief Executive, gave a similar response to the Barclays speculation or that he could become the next governor of the Bank of England.
In the meantime, the news agency reports that BNP Paribas, one of the euro zone's biggest banks, reported a better-than-expected 13.2% fall in second-quarter earnings on Thursday and said it had more or less hit its Basel III capital target six months early.
BNP has sold assets and slashed headcount to beef up its balance sheet in the face of the euro zone debt crisis. At end-June, it was 90% of the way through its deleveraging plan.
Finally, Bloomberg reports that Louis Moore Bacon plans to give back $2bn, or 25% of his main hedge fund, to investors, saying it may be too big for him to achieve past returns as 'liquidity and opportunities have become more constrained'.
Bacon, who seeks to exploit macroeconomic trends such as changes in interest rates and currencies, returned a 'disappointing' 0.35% in the first half and a 'tolerable' 6% in the past year, according to letter sent to clients. He has gained more than 18% a year since starting the Moore Global Investments fund in 1989.
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