 |
Matthew Barrett | |
|---|---|
| Born | Matthew William Barrett 20 September 1944 County Kerry, Ireland |
| Occupation | banker |
| Known for | Chairman and CEO, Bank of Montreal; Chairman and Chief Executive, Barclays Bank |
| Awards | Order of Canada |
Matthew William Barrett OC (born 20 September 1944) is an Irish-Canadian banker who until 2006 was the Chairman of Barclays Bank. Prior to this, Barrett was Chairman and CEO of the Bank of Montreal where he spent 30 years. [1]
He started his banking career in the London office of the Bank of Montreal (BMO) as a clerk in 1962, and moved from London to Canada in 1967 when he was promoted to management trainee at bank's main office. In 1976 he left BMO for a nine-month period when he joined the Royal Bank of Canada, [2] but returned to the Bank of Montreal after this brief period. In 1987 he had become President, then in 1989 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer, and in 1990 he was elected chairman of the board (relinquishing his title of President to Tony Comper who became President and Chief Operating Officer). [3] [4] Barrett negotiated a proposed merger of the Bank of Montreal with the Royal Bank of Canada where his RBC counterpart John Cleghorn would take over as CEO of the combined company, [5] however this deal was turned down by the competition authorities; Barrett was quoted as saying "I'd be fibbing if I said that it was not a blow at the time". Barrett resigned as Chairman and CEO in 1999 and was succeeded by Comper in these roles.
After serving a short stint as Chairman of Irish state-owned bank ACCBank, [6] he returned to Britain on joining Barclays on 1 October 1999 as Group Chief Executive. [7]
He then became Chairman in 2004, [8] and retired on 31 December 2006, succeeded by Marcus Agius. [7]
It was during Barrett's tenure at Barclays that the bank engaged in what became known as "Double Dip" tax scams. The scams were fairly simple – in a typical case, Barclays and an American bank would loan, say, an airline for the purchase of a jumbo jet. A subsidiary without any employees would be set up owned by Barclays and the American bank to handle the transaction, and the subsidiary would pay income tax on the interest income. The scam would come into effect when both Barclays and the American bank would claim the same full tax credit amount with their respective UK and American tax authorities, i.e. essentially Barclays' income from the scam was being paid for by British and American taxpayers without the respective governments and tax authorities knowing what was going on. Barclays was making over £1 billion a year from the practice – a material portion of its total profit. This all came to a grinding halt when The Wall Street Journal published an exposé of the dodge in a front page, column one, article on 30 June 2006 by Carrick Mollenkamp, which ensured that Parliament, the Bank of England, and the UK Inland Revenue and the American Internal Revenue Service would see it and become aware of the scam, and the practice was subsequently outlawed, thus eliminating a major source of income for Barclays. Barrett retired six months after the scandal broke. [9] When his retirement was suddenly announced, The Times of London reported that "The imminent departure of Mr Barrett will come as a shock to many in the City who expected him to stay on much longer as chairman". [10]
Born in County Kerry, Ireland, he attended the Christian Brothers School in Kells, County Meath, and the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 1981. [11]
Barrett is twice divorced (married Irene Korsak c. 1967, divorced 1995; married Anne-Marie Sten, 1997), with four children from his first marriage. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1994 for "fostering the advancement of women in the banking industry", [12] and has dual Irish and Canadian citizenship. In 2009, he married Diane Milner. They live in Palm Beach, Florida. [13] [14]
| Division and subsidiaries | |
|---|---|
| Historical components and acquisitions | |
| Management |
|
| Other |
|
TMX Group Limited is a Canadian financial services company that operates equities, fixed income, derivatives, and energy markets exchanges. The company provides services encompassing listings, trading, clearing, settling and depository facilities, information services as well as technology services for the international financial community.
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was formed through the 1961 merger of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada, in the largest merger between chartered banks in Canadian history. It is one of two "Big Five" banks founded in Toronto, the other being the Toronto-Dominion Bank.
The Bank of Montreal is a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company.
HSBC Holdings plc, originally The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and known locally as HongkongBank in Hong Kong, Canada and Australia during the early 1980s to late 1990s, is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with business links to East Asia and a multinational footprint. It is the largest Europe-based bank by total assets, ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 trillion in assets under custody (AUC) and $4.9 trillion in assets under administration (AUA).
HSBC Bank Canada, formerly the Hongkong Bank of Canada (HBC), is a Canadian chartered bank and the Canadian subsidiary of British multinational banking and financial services company HSBC. HSBC Canada is the seventh largest bank in Canada, with offices in every province except Prince Edward Island, and is the largest foreign-owned bank in the country. The corporate headquarters are located at the HSBC Canada Building in the downtown core's financial district of Vancouver, British Columbia. HSBC Bank Canada's Institution Number is 016.
André Desmarais is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist.
Robert Edward Diamond Jr. is an American banker and former chief executive officer of Barclays plc. In 2010, he became its president and deputy group chief executive; and in January 2011, succeeded John Varley as group chief executive of Barclays.
John Edward Cleghorn, is a Canadian business executive and a former university leader. Cleghorn served as chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Canada from 1994 until 2001. He is also a former chairman of the board of Canadian Pacific Railway.
Eva Lee Kwok is a Malaysian-born Canadian business executive and investor. She is currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She spent her early life in Penang, where she attended St. George's Girls' School.
Sir David Alan Walker is a British banker and former chairman of Barclays. He was chairman of Morgan Stanley International from 1995 to 2001, and 2004 to 2005, and remains a senior advisor. Walker was previously Assistant Secretary at the Treasury (1974–77), chairman of the Securities and Investments Board (1988–92), executive director for finance and industry at the Bank of England (1989–95) and deputy chairman of Lloyds TSB (1992–94). In 1994 he also joined the Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.
F. Anthony Comper, known as Tony Comper, is a Canadian banker. He served as president and chief executive officer of Bank of Montreal, which currently operates under the brand BMO Financial Group, and retired from that position on March 1, 2007.
David A. Galloway, a Canadian, was the CEO of Torstar and was chairman of the board of Bank of Montreal from 2004 to 2012, which is also known as BMO Financial Group.
Marcus Ambrose Paul Agius is a British financier and former group chairman of Barclays.
William Arthur Downe is a Canadian banker who was chief executive officer of Bank of Montreal from March 1, 2007, to October 31, 2017.
Peter Thacher Grauer is an American businessman. He has been a member of the Bloomberg L.P. board since October 1996 and was chairman of the board from 2001 to 2023. Grauer joined Bloomberg full-time in his executive capacities in March 2002. Prior to becoming a member of Bloomberg L.P. in 1996, Grauer was the founder of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Investment. He is the lead independent director of DaVita Inc.
Barclays plc is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Antony Peter Jenkins is a British business executive. Since 2016 he has been the chief executive officer of 10x Future Technologies, which he founded. He was the group chief executive of Barclays from 30 August 2012 until his dismissal on 8 July 2015.
The Toronto Global Forum (TGF) is an annual economic event organized by the International Economic Forum of the Americas since 2007.
R. Jeffrey Orr is a Canadian businessman and is the president and chief executive of Power Corporation of Canada.
Fullgoal Fund Management is a Chinese asset management company founded in 1999. It is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
