BANK managers must become figures in the community again, according to the boss of Barclays.

Roger Davis, speaking in Kent, believes it was a mistake to disempower branch managers and has made it one of his priorities to reverse the situation.

He has upped pay and changed targets. No longer do they have to sell so many loans or open so many accounts.

He has banned the sort of line that every bank customer dreaded: "Don’t you think you should take out more insurance? I have just the product to suit you."

Targets are now based on overall value rather than the sale of specific products.

He said: "We are really beginning to empower the branch managers. I believe branch manager should be going back to the days when they were pillars of the community."

Mr Davis, who was appointed chief executive of UK Banking at the beginning of last year, admitted that product targets were unpopular with staff.

"They felt the bank was forcing them to give customers what the bank thought they wanted or what suited the bank.

"You don’t go into Tesco and somebody leaps out from behind a pillar and says there is no broccoli in your basket. That’s what we’ve been doing."

Now value is the target. "We couldn’t care less what product it’s in."

Mr Davis, 48, was visiting Kent as part of a nationwide "roadshow" campaign to find out what staff think of their employer and how customer service can be improved.

More than 300 out of the bank’s 750-strong county workforce turned up at the Ramada Hotel and Resort, Hollingbourne.

He is an admirer of Tesco and has hired managers from the retail sector to run branches. He would like Barclays to be the Tesco or Waitrose of the banking world.

But he knows that in the highly competitive high street banking sector, that needs toughness as well as charm.

He threw down this gauntlet to his team: "Get on the bus or leave. If you don’t share the dream, that’s fine. You are very welcome to have another dream, just go and have it on someone else’s payroll."

He has sanctioned the sweeping away of several hundred managers who did not share his dream of making Barclays the best bank for customer service, employee opinion and cost-income ratio.

"A year ago, it was absolutely clear that our people felt that we were not providing our customers with good enough service and that was because we in leadership hadn’t placed high enough priority on it."

Training, rewards, and branch decor all needed improvement.

Mr Davis responded by putting 1,000 extra people back into what he calls the frontline, and invested in a branch facelift.

Mr Davis denied that the bank’s £4.6bn profit was excessive.

"I’m neither ashamed not defensive about the money we make. What’s important is what we then do with it. We shouldn’t waste it and I don’t think we do."

He said the bank had paid out £3bn in taxes and dividends, and contributed one per cent from profit to charity. It was also encouraging financial inclusion by helping people who were previously denied access to banking facilities.