Barclays: Aviva's John McFarlane Will Replace David Walker as Chairman

John McFarlane will take over from Sir David Walker as chairman of Barclays, it has been announced.

McFarlane, who is currently chairman of insurance firm Aviva, will take his Barclays role when Walker steps down after the Barclays annual general meeting in 2015.

The bank's share price was up over 1% following the news, the biggest gain of any financial on the FTSE 100.

Barclays has axed thousands of jobs across its operations in recent months as it refocuses on high street banking over the investment side, where falling profits and higher costs have been troubling the bank's irritable shareholders.

And Barclays has been caught up in a number of financial scandals for which it has been hit with hefty fines from regulators, including Libor-fixing and the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).

"I am looking forward enormously to joining the Barclays board and to working with my fellow non-executive directors, Antony Jenkins and his leadership team to deliver the strategy that Barclays has committed to and which I fully support," said McFarlane, who has held senior roles at New Zealand Banking Group, Standard Chartered and Citibank.

"Under Sir David's leadership Barclays has made significant progress in putting in place the foundations for sustainable, long-term success. I am very excited to be asked to Chair Barclays as it enters the next, important stage of its long history."