Don’t push us to leave UK, Barclays warns Treasury

Barclays has made it clear to the Treasury that if the government insists on forcing UK banks to split their high street retail operation from their investment banking work, then it could move its headquarters out of London to the United States.

The claim was made by the Sunday Times which said the bank's former chief executive, John Varley, made the "thinly veiled threat" in a private meeting last week with the Treasury.

Varley was one of several senior bankers called in to discuss the work of the Independent Commission on Banking, chaired by Sir John Vickers, which is expected to outline a break-up scheme of some kind when it reports on April 11.

It is believed that Varley stopped short of making an explicit threat to pull out of the UK - but that he made Barclays' feelings very clear.

While Britain is threatening to clamp down on banking practices, in the US they've started to relax the rules. On Friday, the Federal Reserve gave America's biggest banks permission to release billions of dollars in capital to investors.

Read a full report at the Sunday Times (subscription) ·