Even as authorities continue to probe Barclays' crisis-era conduct, its investment bank looks to be in fine shape. The UK team has defied a market slump in fees and won big mandates for capital markets work, leaving many European and US rivals behind. Now the bank’s country head wants to be ready when M&A picks up.

Alisdair Gayne, Barclays’ head of UK investment banking since late last year, said the bank has had a harder time growing its M&A business than other franchises since starting to build out the investment bank in the wake of its 2008 takeover of parts of Lehman Brothers. But London-based Gayne, who joined Barclays from Morgan Stanley in 2010, thinks the firm is catching up.