Barclays to shed 7,000 more jobs

Thursday 08 May 2014

Barclays is to cut 7,000 jobs from its investment banking division by 2016 as part of a strategy review. The bank has already announced job losses across the group of 12,000 for this year, but this has been increased to 14,000 as a result of the investment bank changes announced today. It brings the total cuts by 2016 to 19,000.

It comes two days after Barclays announced that first quarter earnings from the division fell by half, meaning profits at the group slid by 5%. About a third of the investment bank job cuts announced today - more than 2,000 - will be in the UK.

The strategy review, described by chief executive Antony Jenkins as a "bold simplification" of Barclays, will also see it hive off its European retail banking business into a so-called "bad bank", comprising £115 billion of "non-core" assets. This will include all its customer branches in Portugal, Spain, Italy and France as well as a chunk of its investment banking operation including fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC), plus emerging markets products.

Barclays largely attributed its first quarter profit fall to its FICC unit.

The non-core unit groups together businesses which do not fit the bank's "strategic objectives" or profitability criteria under the review and the bank will "look to exit or run down these assets over time", it said.

Mr Jenkins said: "This is a bold simplification of Barclays. We will be a focused international bank, operating only in areas where we have capability, scale and competitive advantage.

"In the future, Barclays will be leaner, stronger, much better balanced and well-positioned to deliver lower volatility, higher returns and growth."