Barclays poised to pounce in US

From Telegraph of 16/3/08 - Philip Aldrick
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/15/cnbarclays115.xml

Barclays president Bob Diamond is to spend half his time in New York as the bank seeks to capitalise on problems at its Wall Street rivals and beef up its US operation.

Mr Diamond ... made his ambition clear last month when saying "the biggest opportunity in investment banking is in the US". He added: "I can't look back in two-to-three years… and say I flinched. I won't say that."

Barclays believes the problems at several of Wall Street's bulge bracket banks give it an unprecedented opportunity to out-muscle the competition.

To support Mr Diamond's plans, which will involve a significant increase in headcount, Barclays is expected to divert a large amount of resource to the US investment bank. Jerry del Missier, Mr Diamond's apparent successor and president of BarCap, has already moved to the US.