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The Bank of England issued a statement on the European Banking Authority's stress test publication, stating in part: "The results of the EBA stress test published today confirm the results of earlier Bank of England stress tests that the four participating UK banks would be resilient to a severe economic and market stress. The severity of the downturn in the UK economy assumed in the EBA stress scenario was, for the first time, similar to that assumed since 2014 in the Bank of England's own annual stress test of major UK banks...As the Bank has stated previously and is shown by the EBA test results, the new accounting standard will result in bigger drawdowns of capital in stress tests as more provisions are made earlier." Four UK banks - Barclays (BCS), HSBC (HSBC), Lloyds Banking (LYG) and The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - participated in the test. In the EBA stress test, Barclays had a CET1 ratio low-point of 7.3%, HSBC had a low-point of 9.4%, Lloyds had a low-point of 8.5%, RBS had a low-point of 9.9% and the UK weighted average was 8.9%, according to the BOE. Reference Link

Barclays announces that John McFarlane will retire as Chairman of Barclays in May 2019, and that Nigel Higgins has been appointed to succeed him, subject to regulatory approval by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. McFarlane will step down as a Non-Executive Director and as Chairman of Barclays with effect from the conclusion of the Barclays AGM on May 2, 2019, at which point Higgins will assume the role of Chairman, having joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director on March 1, 2019. Higgins is currently Deputy Chairman of Rothschild & Co., having been Managing Partner and co-chairman of the Group's Executive Committee until September 1 of this year.

Barclays names Nigel Higgins to succeed John McFarlane as Chairman

On July 24, 2018, Barclays announced that the Serious Fraud Office had made an application to the High Court seeking to reinstate all of the charges that had been brought by the SFO against Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC regarding matters which arose in the context of Barclays' capital raisings in 2008, such charges having been previously dismissed by the Crown Court. Barclays announced earlier that the High Court has today denied the SFO's application to reinstate in respect of all of the charges. As a result, all of the charges remain dismissed. "As previously disclosed, the FCA issued warning notices in connection with its investigation into the advisory services agreements and the United States Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have also been conducting investigations relating to these same agreements. The FCA's investigation in relation to the advisory services agreements has been stayed due to the SFO proceedings. Other authorities have also been kept informed of developments in these matters. In addition, as previously disclosed, a civil claim has been served on Barclays Bank PLC by PCP Capital Partners LLP and PCP International Finance Limited in relation to the November 2008 capital raising, which Barclays Bank PLC is defending," Barclays stated.