‘Exhausted’ Sants forced to take break from Barclays

Sir Hector Sants, former head of City watchdog the Financial Services Authority and now a top executive at Barclays, is stepping aside until the end of the year, suffering from exhaustion and stress.

His diagnosis echoes that of Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, who was forced to take leave for six weeks from November 2011 after suffering from stress-related exhaustion and insomnia.

Barclays said Sants, 57, who became head of compliance, government and regulatory affairs at Barclays on a £3 million package at the start of the year, will return to work in the new year.

A spokesman said: “‘Exhaustion and stress’ is the precise medical diagnosis – no other conditions apply. Rather than carry on working, and risk more serious consequences to his health, he is following medical advice and will be taking a leave of absence until the end of the year.”

Colleagues of Sants, pictured, pointed out that he had led the FSA through five turbulent years of massive change in the City and the global banking crisis. They said he had thrown himself “headlong” into his new job at Barclays.

Barclays said that because Sants is not a member of its board, it had no requirement to make any official statement.

However, it added that arrangements had been put in place by Sants and chief executive Antony Jenkins — largely through temporary promotions for existing staff — to continue his work on compliance.

Barclays was fined £290 million for rigging Libor rates, is in talks to settle fines over its 2010 fund raising from Middle Eastern investors and is fighting a $470 million fine for allegedly fixing the Californian electricity market.

Horta-Osorio told the Evening Standard after he returned to work, having spent part of his recovery at The Priory: “I understand now why they use sleep deprivation to torture prisoners.”

Sants bore the brunt of many bruising encounters with politicians on the Treasury Select Committee during the financial crisis as the regulator took the blame for inadequate supervision of nationalised Northern Rock’s risky business model and Lloyds takeover of HBOS.