Barclays will appoint Mike Joo and Adeel Khan as co-chief executives of its investment bank with effect from February 2027, subject to regulatory approval, the bank said on 17 August 2026. Joo will join in early 2027 from Bank of America. Khan currently leads Barclays' global markets business and has served as co-head of the investment bank since 2021. Both men will sit on the group executive committee, giving the division two seats at the top table of a bank whose investment banking arm has been the main engine of its recent earnings growth.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays group chief executive, said: "Since 2023, our Investment Bank has delivered a strong performance, growing revenues and returns and driving a more integrated service for clients. As we enter the next stage of our strategy and reflecting the ambition we have for our Investment Bank, Adeel and Mike will form a strong partnership to deliver an even stronger, more integrated service to our clients." The announcement did not name a search firm and did not disclose the terms of either appointment. The structure pairs a markets specialist promoted from within with a banker recruited from one of the largest American competitors, and Barclays said the appointments remain subject to regulatory approval.
Joo joined Bank of America in 2006 and has held a range of senior leadership roles across its global corporate and investment banking and its global markets businesses, serving most recently as co-head of global investment banking. Khan has been at Barclays since 2008. He became global head of credit products in 2014 and co-head of global markets in 2021, before taking sole charge of that division in 2024. Based in London, he leads the credit, macro, securitised products and equities businesses. Before joining Barclays he worked at BlueBay Asset Management, where he sat on the investment committee. He holds a master's degree in finance and economics and a bachelor's degree in econometrics from the London School of Economics, and serves on the board of directors of EMpowerUK.
Barclays is a British universal bank with retail, corporate and investment banking operations, listed on the London Stock Exchange with American depositary shares traded in New York. Its investment bank spans global markets, investment banking advisory and capital markets, and international corporate banking. In the first half of 2026 the group reported income of 16.5 billion pounds, an increase of 11% year on year, and a return on tangible equity of 14.8%, against 13.2% a year earlier. Investment bank income rose 20%, driven by global markets and investment banking fees, and the division reported a return on tangible equity of 16.0%. The group raised its full year income target to about 31.5 billion pounds.
The hire runs against the more familiar direction of travel for senior investment banking talent, which has tended to move from European banks towards American ones, and it is reasonable to infer that Barclays regards origination leadership drawn from a larger competitor as scarce enough to justify a co-leadership structure. The division of labour is not spelled out in the announcement, but the inference from the two men's records is that Khan will continue to own the markets franchise while Joo is expected to lift advisory and capital markets fees, the part of the business where Barclays sits furthest from the American bulge bracket. A second inference, supported by the gap of roughly six months between announcement and effect, is that regulatory clearance for senior management functions and the notice period attached to a competitor's senior banker were the binding constraints on timing rather than any hesitancy about the structure itself. Co-chief executive arrangements carry a known execution risk in banking, because accountability can blur, and the decision to place both men on the group executive committee suggests the bank intends to manage that risk by making each answerable to the group chief executive rather than to one another.
