Barclays Is Cutting About 1,000 Investment Banking Jobs

Barclays will cut about 1,000 jobs in investment banking worldwide and close its cash equities business in Asia as new Chief Executive Jes Staley wields the axe in a bid to reduce costs and boost returns.

The harsher-than-expected cuts are among the most sweeping by an investment bank in recent years and follow similar moves by other European lenders seeking to cut costs in a tough global environment for banks.

Barclays will shut its investment banking businesses in countries including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, an internal memo seen by Reuters showed, with those markets to be covered from financial hub cities in their respective regions.

The axe will also fall across central and eastern Europe, and South America, with offices closing and activity routed back through the lender’s home base in London.

The memo did not give details on how many jobs will be affected but people with knowledge of the matter said 1,000 positions would be axed, the majority of them in Asia, a region where falling trading volumes and stronger competition from local banks has hit profits.

The latest cull would come in addition to the 19,000 cuts announced by Staley in his three-year cost reduction plan.

At the end of 2014, Barclays investment bank employed around 20,500 people according to its annual report, while the bank as a whole had about 132,300 employees.

Spokesmen for Barclays in Hong Kong and London declined to comment on the job cuts.