When a regulatory investigation into Jes Staley's pursuit of a Barclays whistleblower threatened his tenure at the top of the UK lender in 2017, there was a palpable sense of panic among dealmakers and traders at the bank. Now that he has quit the bank, staff are more sanguine.

Staley will be replaced with immediate effect by Barclays’ head of global markets, CS Venkatakrishnan — known as Venkat — who joined Barclays from JPMorgan in 2016, shortly after Staley’s arrival, as chief risk officer. The bank said in a statement that it had identified Venkat as its preferred candidate over a year ago.