Cost-cutting Barclays set to axe 2,000 jobs
- Layoffs are not expected to impact branch staff or investment bankers
Barclays plans to cut as many as 2,000 jobs as it continues a £1 billion cost-cutting mission.
The layoffs at the bank will mainly affect back-office functions in departments such as compliance, human resources and legal affairs.
The layoffs are not expected to affect customer-facing branch staff or investment bankers, according to initial reports from Reuters.
Cost savings: The layoffs at the bank will mainly affect back-office functions in departments such as compliance, human resources and legal affairs.
Speculation about job cuts comes just weeks after the FTSE 100 lender warned of the need for restructuring to boost profits and dividend payments to shareholders.
Last month, Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan – better known as Venkat – said the bank was looking for “efficiencies” in reducing “structural costs”.
“We’re always modulating the size of our workforce wherever we are in the world, and that’s what we’ll continue to do,” he said when asked about jobs.
Barclays, meanwhile, reported a 16 percent fall in third-quarter profits to £1.3 billion after the company was hit by a slowdown at its investment banking arm and shrinking margins at its British high street division.
Russ Mould, investment director at broker AJ Bell, said the job cuts showed how Venkat is “feeling the pressure”.
After a difficult few months, analysts had expected between £500 million and £1.5 billion in cost cuts.
Benjamin Toms, an analyst at RBC, said: “They had already told us the cost plan, but what they didn’t tell us was how big or what the benefit would be. What we now appear to have is the other side of that initial announcement, which will be useful to investors as they begin to map out the extent of the potential structural cost measures.”
The bank has approximately 87,000 employees worldwide, of which approximately 44,000 are in Great Britain.
Barclays declined to comment on any cuts.
Banks are feeling the pressure of a broader slowdown in dealmaking, which has plagued the Square Mile for much of this year.
And Venkatakrishnan, who took over from Jes Staley in November 2021, warned that this misery would continue for the city. Speaking on a podcast last month, he said a revival still seems “a little further away,” adding that the lack of deals was hampering front office recruiting.