Senior bankers at Barclays are the latest executives in the financial sector to condemn racial inequality following wildfire protests across the US over the death of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

In a memo to staff seen by Financial News, Barclays’ Americas chief executive, Richard Haworth and chief risk officer CS Venkatakrishnan said that they were “horrified by the needless deaths of members of the black community”, adding that they were speaking on behalf of the UK lender’s leadership team.