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Yui Mok
Libor
Barclays axe 7,000 jobs at struggling unit as it creates 'bad bank'
It will also have to sell or run down about £115 billion of non-core assets.
BARCLAYS HAS ANNOUNCED it will axe 7,000 jobs at its struggling investment bank unit and sell or run down about £115 billion of non-core assets, in a major strategic shake-up.
The bank, which was at the heart of the Libor interest-rate rigging scandal, also said the overall number of job cuts planned for this year had risen to 14,000.
Along with HSBC and other banks, Barclays is being probed also over possible manipulation of foreign exchange trade.
The scandal emerged when authorities realized some banks had submitted false data for market gain.
The revelations shocked the financial community, forcing a reform in how the rate was administered.
The bank had originally said that up to 12,000 jobs would be lost worldwide in 2014 out of a total workforce of about 139,000.
The bank said that the 7,000 investment banking jobs would go by 2016.
“This is a bold simplification of Barclays,” chief executive Antony Jenkins said in the statement.
“We will be a focused international bank, operating only in areas where we have capability, scale and competitive advantage.”
Jenkins added that Barclays would become “leaner, stronger, much better balanced and well positioned to deliver lower volatility, higher returns, and growth”.
The bank will meanwhile create Barclays Non-Core — a unit grouping “assets which do not fit the strategic objectives” of the group, the statement said.
“Barclays will look to exit or run down these assets over time,” it added.
- © AFP, 2014. Additional reporting by AP
