Barclays Bank has been mostly notable over the past few years for the number of scandals and administrative mishaps that have plagued the bank and its long-suffering shareholders. Against that difficult background the investment bank has managed to hold its own during the worst of the markets this year as its trading arm made full use of volatility to underpin the bank’s £2bn reported profit at the recent third-quarter results. On the basis that performance, it comes as no surprise that Paul Compton, head of Barclays’ global investment bank, used the end of the lock-in period after the results to sell a sizeable chunk of Barclays shares.

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