Barclays has cut about 5,000 jobs in the past year, as part of an effort to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Barclays is estimated to have reduced about 5,000 jobs throughout the world in 2023, as part of its cost-cutting initiative which started late last year. The figure is around 5% of its total workforce at the moment.
The job cuts are expected to be a combination of actual redundancies and vacancies which will not be filled after all. The full details are expected to be revealed along with the bank’s earnings release on 20 February, but this cost-cutting plan is expected to be valued at about £1 billion (€1.16 billion).
The move has mainly impacted the Barclays UK chief operating officer function, as well as Barclays Execution Services (BX), as the group veers towards becoming less top-heavy.
A spokesperson for the investment bank highlighted that Barclays was doing this as “part of its ongoing efficiency programme designed to simplify and reshape the business, improve service, and deliver higher returns.”
Barclays looks towards more attractive opportunities
Barclays has been struggling for years with how its investment banking division has been doing, even leading to speculations of the group dropping thousands of investment banking clients. Doing so is expected to provide more capital for more profit-generating ventures.
The group has also faced a number of scandals entangling past CEOs in the past few years. Jes Staley, who was Barclays CEO for six years, faced allegations of a closer relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, than previously revealed.
This led to a long and contentious battle with City regulators, ultimately leading to Staley stepping down in November 2021. In October, the UK Financial Conduct Authority banned Staley from holding any senior City role and fined him £1.8 million for failing to reveal the extent of his close relationship with Epstein.
