A former Barclays executive has apologised in court for calling financier Amanda Staveley a “tart” and a “dolly bird” during negotiations over an emergency cash call during the 2008 financial crisis.
Roger Jenkins, Barclays’ investment banking chief during the crisis, on Tuesday told the judge in high court that he apologised, during questions in a £1.5bn legal action against Barclays.
Staveley is suing Barclays after her client, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, invested £3.25bn as part of emergency fundraising as the bank scrambled to avoid a UK government bailout.
PCP Capital Partners, the investment company run by Staveley, claims Barclays made a secret side deal with Qatari investors that meant that PCP lost out on much higher fees than the £30m it actually received. Barclays has described the case as “opportunistic and speculative”.
Staveley recently brokered the potential takeover of the Premier League football club Newcastle United.
Jenkins was at the time one of the highest-paid bankers in the UK, arranging financing for large companies, and was known as “big dog” by some colleagues. The high court also heard last week that Jenkins joked about giving a colleague cocaine.
The sexist terms were used in a telephone conversation recorded in October 2008 between Jenkins and Richard Boath, the bank’s former head of European financial institutions division.
“Now that dolly bird … that represents – is it – what’s her name?” Boath asked, according to the transcript. “Amanda Staveley,” Jenkins said. Jenkins later added: “I can handle dolly birds.”
Later in the call, Jenkins had said: “Well I am - you know, I’m going to call the tart; I was going to call the tart.” Boath asked: “Who’s the tart?” Jenkins replied: “Amanda.”
Jenkins was asked on Tuesday about his use of the word “tart” by a lawyer representing PCP.
“I apologise for that,” he said. He indicated that he had apologised to Ms Staveley before. Staveley was in court to hear his apology.
The comments by Jenkins and Boath were not the only instance of derogatory comments uncovered during the trial. Another former Barclays executive, Stephen Jones, last month resigned as chief executive of the banking lobby group UK Finance after it emerged that he had called Staveley’s firm “fuckers” and “scumbags”.
Barclays declined to comment on Jenkins’ remarks.