Barclays poised to appoint an American from JP Morgan as next CEO

(Bloomberg) — Barclays Plc is close to naming former top JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker Jes Staley its next chief executive officer, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The U.K. bank told regulators he's the frontrunner for the post, and his appointment could be announced within two weeks if approved, the person said, asking not to be identified because the decision isn't final. Kerrie Cohen, a spokeswoman for Barclays, declined to comment.

Staley spent 34 years at JPMorgan, rising from his post as an investment banker in Brazil to run the firm's asset- management and investment-bank units. He was once seen as a candidate to succeed Jamie Dimon as CEO.

Barclays Chairman John McFarlane is seeking to replace CEO Antony Jenkins, whom he fired in July after growing frustrated with the slow pace of restructuring. McFarlane has since pledged to step up the pace of his overhaul and press on with cost cuts and divestitures to bolster earnings, battered by surging litigation costs.

As part of a series of executive changes in the wake of JPMorgan's wrong-way bets in its chief investment office, Staley was stripped of all day-to-day management duties and passed over for promotion in 2012. Months later, he quit the firm to become a managing partner at hedge-fund firm BlueMountain Capital Management. A spokesman for that firm declined to comment.