Barclays’ chief executive sought to put a torrid year of scandals and management upheaval behind him yesterday, revealing a far-reaching ambition to reinvent a bank that has become a byword for aggressive financial engineering. Antony Jenkins laid out a vision of a bank “doing well financially and behaving well”.

Shares in Barclays jumped nearly 9 per cent to a two-year high after Mr Jenkins, who took over last year pledging a more ethical approach to banking, heartened investors with a promise of more generous dividends and a detailed programme of cost cuts. At the heart of his planned reform is a bid to convince the world that he can reconcile the interests of customers, shareholders and society.

Analysts said his pledge to eliminate ￡1.7bn in costs by 2015 and pay out 30 per cent of profits in dividends was encouraging investors to buy the shares. Mr Jenkins’ focus on ethical business standards – derided by some in the bank as rhetoric – was also commended by investors.