Barclays to cut about 100 senior jobs to save costs

In the second quarter of last year, Barclays cut 3,000 jobs. Reuters

Britain's Barclays is embarking on a plan to cut about 100 senior jobs, mostly in trading roles, as the British lender seeks to rein in costs.

The bank has started trimming mainly managing director and director positions in London and Asian financial hubs, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details aren’t public.

A spokeswoman for Barclays in London declined to comment on the cuts, which are among the first to be implemented by a major investment bank in 2020. Last year saw several European lenders reshape their securities units, eliminating thousands of roles amid increasing competition from US peers and a lacklustre home market.

Jonathan Kitei, head of securitised product sales for Americas, Tim Johnston, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, cash high-touch trading and sales, and Anindya Das Gupta, head of treasury in India, are leaving the bank as part of the cuts, people familiar with the matter said. All three declined to comment.

About a dozen positions in Asia have been hit, though the cuts won’t result in a retreat from any business or market in the region, one of the people said.

The bank reports its full-year results in February. The corporate and investment bank outperformed Wall Street peers in the third quarter, as revenue from fixed-income and equities trading advanced.

Chief executive Jes Staley, who has clamped down on expenses as he seeks to reach profitability targets, nevertheless said in October that “the outlook for next year is unquestionably more challenging now than it appeared a year ago.“

Last year, he said Barclays cut 3,000 jobs in the second quarter. In the bank’s 2018 annual report, Barclays said global headcount was more than 83,000.

Banks announced almost 80,000 job cuts last year, the most since 2015, with the vast majority of that sum in Europe. Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank are among other European lenders who have recently cut headcount.