Barclays starts cuts to ‘a few hundred’ jobs in cost saving bid as investment division slumps
The news follows the high street banks' group-wide cost-cutting programme aimed at reducing costs by around £2billion
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Barclays has reportedly started cutting hundreds of jobs, affecting the investment banking division.
In a statement, the bank explained they “regularly review” their talent pool to ensure that they can invest in talent and deliver for clients.
The news follows the high street banks' group-wide cost-cutting programme aimed at reducing costs by around £2billion.
The cuts will affect “a few hundred employees” in Barclays’ global markets, investment banking and research divisions, according to Bloomberg News sources.
They began informing employees of the intended cuts on Wednesday, one of the sources said.
The investment banking division is a major focus for improvement as this is one of the main reasons its year on year earnings were down last year.
The business posted a 12 per cent decline in fees year-on-year in the fourth quarter at £2.0billionn.
Barclays is the only domestic UK bank that still has a global deal-making arm
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Total income from Barclays’ Corporate and Investment Bank division came in at £2.4billion in 2023, down from £2.6billion the year before.
The division's weaker performance has left some investors arguing that its volatile revenue stream should be ditched entirely.
The staff that will be impacted are mainly based in the bank's global markets, investment banking and research division, the source added.
A Barclays spokesperson said in a statement: "As previously reported, we regularly review our talent pool to ensure that we can invest in talent and deliver for clients.
"This is difficult, but necessary, to ensure we position ourselves for long-term success as we execute against our strategy."
Barclays reported a slightly smaller than expected 12 per cent fall in first-quarter profit last week.
The high street banking giant reported a group pre-tax profit of £2.3billion for the first three months of 2024, down from £2.6billion the year before.
However, the figure was slightly above analysts' expectations of £2.2billion, helping Barclays shares to rise more than four per cent in early trading on Thursday.
This boosted confidence among investors that its turnaround task was on track despite lower income from trading and weak mortgage demand.
The bank cut around 5,000 jobs in 2023 from its global workforce of 84,000 in a bid to "simplify and reshape the business", it said.
The job cuts were expected to be a combination of actual redundancies and vacancies which will not be filled after all.
Barclays said the cuts were part of its plans to improve profitability from its third-quarter results in October last year.
With these cost-cutting measures, they aim to return £10billion to shareholders by 2026.
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Barclays is the only domestic UK bank that still has a global deal-making arm, dominated by Wall Street rivals like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
Unlike the biggest US banks, Barclays’ investment banking and trading operations did not receive a major boost last quarter from a rebound in global deal-making and capital markets activity.
It has also announced nearly 200 branch closures in recent years, saying only 10 per cent of transactions were now taking place face-to-face.
GB News has contacted Barclays for comment.