Whistleblowers must be protected – Barclays Boss finds out to his cost

Barclays boss Jes Staley is facing a fine from the UK’s financial watchdog after he attempted to identify a whistleblower who criticised another executive.

Two anonymous letters were sent to the bank’s Board in June 2016, containing information about senior executive Tim Main. These were treated as a whistleblowing matter and were investigated.
However, Staley took measures to identify the author of the letters because he considered them to be “an unfair personal attack on the senior employee.” Under the law, a firm must make every effort to protect the identity of a whistleblower. Staley says he had not been aware of this when he set out to discover who wrote the letters.

It is not yet known how much Staley will be fined or if he plans to appeal the decision.