CS Venkatakrishnan

BANKING bosses face a multitude of challenges in their roles, ranging from regulatory hurdles to technological disruptions, but CS Venkatakrishnan, group chief executive of Barclays, had the daunting prospect of battling cancer last year.

In March 2023, he announced that he has completed treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer affecting the lymph system, and was in remission.

“I am pleased to inform you that I have completed the treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma that I commenced last November. I am now in remission (no evidence of disease),” Venkatakrishnan told colleagues in a letter.

“Over the coming weeks, I plan to be working more from the office, and ultimately resuming travel.”

Coimbatore Sundararajan Venkatakrishnan, known inside the bank as Venkat, had previously said in November 2022 that doctors viewed his prognosis as “excellent” and that he would keep working when possible, while receiving treatment in New York.

“I am very grateful for the care I have received,” he added in his letter. “As always, I encourage you to pay close attention to your physical and mental wellbeing. If you or eligible members of your family have been diagnosed with cancer, please do make use of the support we provide to employees worldwide.”

The head of the British multinational bank, which employs 90,000 people worldwide, has since spoken about the lessons he learned during his treatment. “I am easing into the global CEO’s travel schedule,” Venkatakrishnan told the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in May last year. “I’m taking fewer, but longer, trips.”

“As CEOs, we spend a lot of time thinking about our companies, their business prospects and the potential risks. We don’t think about ourselves as much,” he added. He revealed how the feedback to his decision to remain in the top post while undergoing treatment – questions like whether he anticipated staff members to follow suit and work through their illnesses and whether he wanted to appear tough in front of the workforce – prompted him to change his approach as a CEO.

“Of course, it was neither,” Venkatakrishnan said. “But the thought had not even occurred to me.” As he has to cut down on the work he could do during the treatment, he said that he found the process “instructive”, saying: “I’ve learned there are some things you can let other people do – they might even do it better than you – and you should try to focus on what is important for the job.

Venkatakrishnan also batted for a better appreciation of hybrid work, highlighting the need of work-life balance of people’s physical and mental well-being.

Meanwhile, Barclays has a mixed year in 2023, as its annual profit slid on a large restructuring charge, but shares rallied on a £10-billion plan to return cash to investors. Profit after tax slid 15 per cent to £4.3bn last year on a £900-million charge for the fourth quarter, Barclays revealed in a results statement in February.

Revenue grew 2 per cent last year to £25.4bn on the back of rising interest rates. “Our new three-year plan... is designed to further improve Barclays’ operational and financial performance, driving higher returns and predictable, attractive shareholder distributions,” Venkatakrishnan said in the earnings release.

The plans, which he described as “measured ambition”, see Barclays prioritise its more profitable consumer and business lending operations, while reducing the proportion of assets accounted for by its more costly investment bank.

The bank’s first strategy update in almost a decade marks an inflection point for Venkatakrishnan as he tries to improve returns after a period of management turmoil and underwhelming results. His update included plans to cut £1bn in costs in the near term and to review the future of its payments business. Barclays will allocate an additional £30bn in risk-weighted assets to its UK retail bank by 2026.

Barclays said that it still wanted to grow its investment bank over the three years, albeit more slowly than retail, while rebalancing it to grow market share in areas including equities and advisory. That will reduce the assets accounted for by its investment bank from 63 per cent in 2023 to 50 per cent by 2026, Venkatakrishnan said. Earlier in February, Barclays, which is Britain’s biggest lender to the oil and gas industry, said it would stop directly financing its energy clients’ new oil and gas projects, as part of its updated climate strategy.

The bank added it would scale back lending for existing fossil fuel projects as the sector faces intense pressure from activist investors to help tackle climate change. “Barclays today publishes a revised Climate Change Statement to progress its climate strategy and continues its focus on clients actively engaged in the energy transition,” it said in a statement. Barclays also expects “energy clients to produce transition plans or decarbonisation strategies” by 2025. In January, Barclays, which aims to become a ‘net zero bank’ by 2050, announced the formation of a new energy transition group to provide strategic advice to clients on everything from renewables to nature-based solutions and carbon capture.

A highly regarded leader with extensive experience in risk management, Venkatakrishnan joined Barclays in 2016 as group chief risk officer and served as head of global markets and co-president of Barclays Bank Plc from October 2020, before taking on the role of group chief executive in November 2021. Prior to joining Barclays, he worked at JPMorgan Chase from 1994, holding senior roles in asset management, investment banking, and risk.

Born in the south Indian city of Mysuru, Karnataka in 1966, he obtained his Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is also on the advisory board of the Golub Center for Finance and Policy.

He also serves on the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Leadership Council, CNBC ESG Network and the board of the Institute of International Finance. Venkatakrishnan is also actively engaged in philanthropic endeavours, in his capacity as the chair of the corporate partnerships board at The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, which raises money solely to support The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre.