The move was spearheaded by chief executive Martin Wheatley, who sought to clean up the industry, but was ousted by George Osborne last week in what was seen by many as a victory for the banks.
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Citing people familiar with the developments, Reuters reports that Barclays hasn’t set any new targets to trim jobs beyond the 19,000 that was indicated in May of past year.
The report said that the bank was working on a group wide cost-cutting programme.
However, the bank has told The Drum that there are no plans to axe more than 30,000 jobs.
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.
Banks are cutting jobs as bosses strive to improve profitability that has been hurt by tougher regulation.
Further job reductions would help bring Barclays in line with Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking, which have eliminated thousands of jobs, with some reductions through sales of business units.
The lender will face pressure to clarify its plans when it unveils half-year financial results next week.
The Financial Conduct Authority visited Barclays (Swiss: BARC.SW – news) 186 times a year ago, more than twice as often as any other bank.
Barclays is already witnessing a major cost-cutting program which saw 14,000 posts slashed past year and is expected to witness 5,000 more go by 2016, with dozens of branches also closing down.
With the recent changes at the top management following the exit of Jenkins, there is speculation that the new CEO would be under pressure to speed up job cuts to boost bank’s bottomlines and share price.
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The layoffs are most likely to ride roughshod over staff; hardest hit will be the company’s middle and back office operations, where the biggest savings have been achieved in the past.
