Barclays head of compliance and government and regulatory relations, Sir Hector Sants, has resigned after only ten months on the job. Sants, who has been on sick leave since early October, has been “suffering from stress and exhaustion,” the company stated in a press release. “Consequently he has decided to resign from Barclays and not return.”

Barclays Group Chief Executive Antony Jenkins credited Sants with making "significant progress toward creating a world class compliance function at Barclays, and in improving our relationships with regulators and governments."

Regulatory Probes

Sants' departure comes at a time when the banking giant has found itself ensnared in several regulatory probes over allegations that the bank manipulated certain exchange markets to benefit their trading positions. Barclays recently suspended six traders amid a probe over allegations that it manipulated the foreign exchange (Forex) market.

“Barclays Bank has received  inquiries from certain of these authorities related to their particular investigations, is reviewing its foreign exchange  trading covering a several year period through August 2013, and is cooperating with the relevant authorities in their investigations,” the company stated in its third-quarter filing. “It is not possible at this stage for Barclays to predict the impact of these investigations on it.”

The Forex market investigation involves multiple market participants in various countries. Other banks under investigation include Goldman Sachs, HSBC, UBS, Deutsche Bank, RBS, Citigroup, and JP Morgan.

Barclays said that the European Commission has also been conducting investigations into the manipulation of, among  other things, Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR). “Barclays is a party to the Commission's EURIBOR investigation and continues to cooperate.” The Commission has publicly stated that it hopes to be ready to adopt a decision in respect of its investigations toward the end of 2013.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Conduct Authority are also conducting separate investigations into historical practices with respect to the ISDAfix benchmark, Barclays stated. The bank said it “has received and continues to respond to subpoenas and requests for information from the CFTC.”

More Changes

Barclays Chief Operations and Technology Officer, Shaygan Kheradpir, is also leaving to assume the chief executive post for a U.S.-based company that Barclays did not identify.

As a result of these resignations, the company said it has launched an internal and external search for both posts. In the meantime, Allen Meyer, head of compliance, corporate and investment banking, will act as interim head of compliance and government and regulatory relations. Barclays' Chief Information Officer, Darryl West, will act as interim group chief operations and technology officer. Both Meyer and West will join the executive committee and report to Group Chief Executive, Antony Jenkins.

Columnist Bruce Carton's take on the Sants resignation, can be found here.