However, the head of strategy at Jupiter Asset Management, which is a top 50 shareholder in Barclays, said there remains some outstanding questions regarding the probe, hinting at investors shifting in their seats. 

“The nature of the statement suggests that in the eyes of the regulator, at least, [Staley] was economical with the truth in terms of his description of his relationship,” he told Bloomberg. “We can’t know that without having read the thing.”

Venkatakrishnan may have inherited something of a poisoned chalice. It’s been nearly a decade since a Barclays chief executive has left the job voluntarily. 

But, according to Shore Capital’s Greenwood, succession plans were well thought through. Barclays has clearly been planning for such an occasion for some time, he says, with the bank reshuffling its highest ranks more than a year ago in expectation of Staley’s departure – including promoting Venkatakrishnan to a senior role. 

Still, Barclays was not expecting the regulators’ report to land late on Friday. Staley was scheduled to represent the bank at the Cop26 climate summit this week and he is thought to be surprised by its findings. 

Staley did not know it at the time, but a 2015 voyage on his 90ft two-master yacht, Bequia, to the Caribbean Island of Little St James appears to have played a fateful role in ending his career at one of Britain’s biggest banks before it had even begun. 

That four-hour lunch off the Caribbean coast with Brazilian wife Debbie and Epstein, who he met in 2000 when working at JP Morgan’s private bank, was one of several events probed by City regulators in establishing whether the Barclays chief failed to properly explain his ties with the disgraced financier. 

His abrupt defenestration was apparently triggered by a perceived inconsistency between his account to his own board regarding his relationship with Epstein and evidence seen by the regulators, largely supplied by his former employer JP Morgan Chase.

The relationship became problematic after 2008 when Epstein plead guilty to soliciting prostitution. But while the sex offender was serving time for the offences, Staley remained in touch. The two men are said to have met at Epstein’s office in Florida, where the billionaire was allowed to work on weekdays during his sentence.

Staley was later listed as a referee for the convicted paedophile when Epstein was applying for a banking licence in the Virgin Islands. Staley claimed he was unaware his name had been included in Epstein’s list of references. 

Barclays, likely worried about its future respectability, said the FCA probe makes no findings that Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Epstein’s alleged crimes. This was the central question underpinning the bank’s support for its boss after the sex offender was arrested in 2019. 

Now, the former Barclays chief will now contest the regulators’ findings as he seeks to save his reputation.

Last year, the American said he “deeply regretted having any relationship with Jeffrey”. The yacht-owner will no doubt feel that more keenly today as he hands over the captaincy of Barclays and steers his own focus to defending his reputation.