BARCLAYS PLOTS 2,000 JOBS CUTS IN £1BN COST-CUTTING PLAN – Redundancy plans likely to impact employees in legal, HR and compliance departments
Barclays is preparing to axe up to 2,000 jobs in a £1bn cost-cutting drive aimed at boosting the lender’s profits.
The redundancy plans, which emerged on Thursday night, are likely to impact employees in departments such as legal, HR and compliance – rather than customer-facing branch staff or investment bankers.
The shake-up will cement a push by Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan to strip costs from the business and satisfy City demands to boost its flagging share price.
The division expected to be targeted by cuts is known internally as Barclays Execution Services, with digitisation leaving many roles surplus to requirements.
Barclays currently employs about 87,000 people across the globe, with 44,000 workers in the UK.
Venkatakrishnan, known as Venkat, flagged plans to restructure the bank’s spending bill last month but failed to spell out the exact nature of the cost-cutting actions.
Shares in Barclays have slid 15pc so far this year due to declining profits, which has triggered calls for Venkat to revive the lender’s fortunes.
City analysts had been expecting between £500m and £1.5bn of costs to be trimmed.
The bank is expected to give further details of the job cuts when it publishes its full-year results in February.
According to its latest financials, costs are not rising at the bank but remain steady – meaning further savings could boost shareholder value.