Britain’s Barclays Bank is planning to cut more than 30,000 jobs over the next two years, a newspaper report says.
Advertisement
The beleaguered bank said this is the only measure to turn around its flagging performance, with the aim to double its share price over the period, The Times reports. The job cuts are likely to impact staff at middle and back office operations in order to achieve largest savings.
Since then, Barclays’ share price has continued to lag rivals and Jenkins was fired this month with the bank saying that new leadership was required to accelerate changes at the bank.
Barclays is considering deeper job cuts that could see its workforce shrink by about a quarter over the coming years, said a person with knowledge of the matter.
First reported by The Times, the bank’s latest decision, which will result in a reduction of global workforce below 100,000 by 2017-end, is expected to address its chronic underperformance.
The bank, which employed about 132 000 people at the end of December, is reducing staff numbers under a cost-cutting program announced by former CEO Antony Jenkins. The firm previous year announced plans to eliminate some 19 000 jobs by 2016. The efforts are part of a large-scale reorganization headed by Chairman John McFarlane, who has pledged to tackle the “cumbersome and bureaucratic” company, Bloomberg reported, citing an unnamed source.
The move echoed McFarlane’s actions at insurer Aviva (AV.L), where he took over the full-time running of the insurer in May 2012 having delivered a critical assessment of Chief Executive Andrew Moss’s five years in charge.
Barclays now operates in over 50 countries and territories.
Advertisement
Banks are cutting jobs as bosses strive to improve profitability that has been hurt by tougher regulation. Germany’s Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC were downgraded by S&P in June alongside Barclays, and major banks like HSBC and Citigroup have also slashed thousands of jobs in recent years.
