James Ashton: The task ahead for Barclays' new boss Jes Staley

What luck. Jes Staley will receive an instant health check for Barclays tomorrow as the bank’s new chief executive arrives for his first day.

In common with all British banks, Barclays is not expected to fail the Bank of England’s stress tests, which assess whether lenders have enough money to withstand a deep recession.

But tougher tests next year could mean tougher times for investors who would be reluctant to see the dividend cut to preserve cash.

The big test for Staley though is not the here and now but the long-term vision for Barclays.

The Bostonian JPMorgan veteran cured his own stutter in high school, when words beginning with “B” used to scare him.

Barclays’ no-nonsense chairman John McFarlane must hope he has found the right man to cure Britain’s stuttering bank.

Staley’s predecessors suffered their own problems with words. Antony Jenkins preached better culture, plastering “respect” and “integrity” in the lifts at Barclays’ Churchill Place HQ, but got tongue-tied over strategy.

For Bob Diamond, sorry seemed to be the hardest word. In fact, it now transpires that, soon after Diamond told the Treasury Select Committee in early 2011 that the time for banker remorse was over, some of his colleagues began cooking up the hush-hush £1.9 billion “elephant deal” for which the bank was fined £72 million by the Financial Conduct Authority last week.

At Aviva, where he dispensed with the services of Andrew Moss, McFarlane found the correct narrative in double-quick time.

The insurer needed to simplify its story for customers and shareholders and extract value by selling off chunks of its overseas empire.

Barclays, where the Scot showed Jenkins the door, is a harder fix. Staley’s script is to reduce costs, drive up returns and figure out whether Barclays’ investment bank is worth saving or spin it off before it suffers death by a thousand cuts.

Much of that is already in train, with the jobs axe swinging again.

He must also tread the line between being a banking saint and sinner, at least in the public’s eyes.

Some banking bosses have helped the industry take vital steps forward, notably Antonio Horta Osorio at Lloyds.

There is a feeling now that being community-minded doesn’t mean a lender has gone soft in the head, that being nakedly commercial does not mean trying to diddle customers at every turn.

If the politicians and the public are no longer banker-bashing, it is investors who have picked up the cudgels.