Barclays has named Crawford Gillies as chairman of its UK entity as Sir Ian Cheshire has stepped down amid a period of change for the lender's retail operations.

In a statement, the UK lender said that Gillies would succeed Cheshire, who has chaired Barclays' ring-fenced UK subsidiary since April 2017. The bank is facing a period of change as it reshapes its retail business to deal with the fall out from the Covid-19 pandemic and a prolonged low interest rate environment, which has forced some of its rivals to focus more on fee-based products.