Barclays ponders global group marketing director

Barclays is understood to be considering creating a global group marketing director role.

The move is also believed to have been prompted by the departure of Jim Hytner, group brand and UK banking marketing director.

The mooted role would be “considerably higher” than Hytner’s position and report directly to Frits Seegers, chief executive of global retail and commercial banking. It is not known if would be a board level position.

Hytner resigned last week to take the commercial director role at Top Up TV, as exclusively revealed by Marketing Week (MW last week).

His role is being overseen by Deanna Oppenheimer, UK banking chief operating officer, on an interim basis. However, it is understood that Barclays’ senior managment is keen to have a global marketing chief in place straddling the retail and commercial operations. The new role would mirror the role created for Seegers last year.

Barclays’ moves toward a global marketing structure come as its rivals, including HSBC and Lloyds TSB, also boost their marketing teams with global appointments.

Earlier this month, HSBC appointed former Reuters Asia managing director Alex Hungate to a board level role, as revealed by Marketingweek.co.uk. Last September, Lloyds TSB appointed former Lowe Group Asia-Pacific chairman and chief executive Nigel Gilbert as group marketing director.

A spokeswoman for Barclays Group says: “We do not comment on gossip or speculation.”

Barclays is courting Dutch giant ABN Amro with ambitious merger plans that would create the world’s fourth largest financial institution although it faces competition from a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium.