The prankster who last week tricked Barclays chief executive Jes Staley into believing he was corresponding with the bank's chairman is a 38-year-old web designer from Manchester, who has been a customer of Barclays for more than 20 years.

The hoaxer, who asked FN not to reveal his identity, had been trying to correspond with Staley for five months concerning loans he believes were wrongly given to him by the bank in August last year.