Edited by Deepali Verma
Barclays bank has confirmed its huge cost-cutting exercise where it laid off thousands of jobs around the world. Close to 5,000 roles were axed from its global workforce of 84,000 last year in a bid to “simplify and reshape the business”, it said
Nearly a quarter of the cuts took place in the UK, the BBC understands.
A Barclays spokesperson informed that the bank was supporting affected employees with training and advice, depending where the staff were based.
The decrease in headcount came about due to redundancies, combined with vacancies that have not been filled during a hiring freeze, as Sky News first reported.
A spokesperson from Barclays has confirmed to the BBC that it made the huge change to “improve service and deliver higher returns”.
Most employees concerned worked in back-office support teams and “as management layers are decreased and the group improves its technology and automation capabilities”, they said.
Barclays revealed that the layoffs were part of its plans to improve profitability, which it claimed were announced in its third-quarter results in October last year.
However, the total number of cuts exceeds the 900 UK job losses previously reported.
It showcases the latest step of Barclays in its savings programme, which has already seen jobs go across its retail and investment banking businesses.
Barclays additionally made an announcement that nearly 200 branch closures in recent years, saying only 10% of transactions were now taking place face-to-face.
According to the reports of the bank, pre-tax profits for the three months to September of £1.9bn, slightly better than analysts’ forecasts, but down from £2bn a year ago.
The latest announcement, thought to be among the biggest savings exercises carried out at Barclays since the 2008 financial crisis, will increase pressure on the lender ahead of its full-year results for 2023 being published next month.
