Bob Diamond, the high-profile president of Barclays, plans to join the board of BlackRock if the US money management group reaches agreement to buy Barclays Global Investors, the UK bank’s asset management business.

BlackRock was on Friday night in the final stages of agreeing a $10bn-plus (£6.3bn) deal to buy BGI from Barclays, which would allow the UK lender to strengthen its balance sheet. However, the talks could yet stall after Barclays demanded at least $12bn.