The Barclays bloodbath: Shrinking bank cuts 20,000 jobs

The cuts are part of the scheme aimed to reduce risk of the bank’s operation and to cut excessive cost.

16:58 08 May 2014

Barclays has confirmed its decision to axe 20,000 jobs as part of its new strategy in becoming the “go-to” bank. 

 

Sky’s City Editor Mark Kleinman has the details on Wednesday evening that are aimed towards reducing the bank’s risk in its investment operations and cutting excessive cost. 

 

The news has boosted the bank’s share prices, rising more than 3per cent when the FTSE 100 opened for business. 

 

Barclays said that 14,000 positions will be axed across the group during 2014, around half of them in the UK. An additional 7,000 positions will go in the investment bank's cull leading up to 2016. 

 

Bank’s chief executive Antony Jenkins said: "This is a bold simplification of Barclays. We will be a focused international bank, operating only in areas where we have capability, scale and competitive advantage".

 

Barclays said it now expected 30% of Group profits to be made by the investment bank - down significantly from the average 50% it contributed under Bob Diamond's 'casino banking' scheme.