Barclays, which recently sold its African assets to its South African subsidiary, Absa, wants to remain a big player in investment banking, it said late on Thursday.
The lender made this statement as the British bank is cutting costs and jobs in that business, including at least 70 in its Asian division. Reuters reports that the bank has not finalised the number of jobs to go in Asia. But according to people familiar with the plans, but it could be as high as 90.
Antony Jenkins, who took over as Barclays chief executive at the end of August last year, is expected to cut about 2 000 investment banking jobs globally in a review of the bank’s business due on Febuary 12. The bank told UK staff of possible cuts earlier this week.
“Barclays will continue to be a universal bank and it will continue to have a very, very significant and large investment bank as part of that universal banking model,” Jenkins said in an interview with CNBC.
Jenkins declined to specify the scale of cuts in Asia, but said: “We still see opportunities for us in Asia in investment banking and equities, but we also see opportunities for us in other parts of the world so it’s a relative, rather than an absolute statement.
“We live in a world where capital is scarce and we have to deploy it against our best opportunities.”
Banks globally are having to cut costs to cope with this more hostile climate, partly the result of tougher regulation on the industry after the financial crisis.
The CEO said more regulation and nationalism and a tough economic backdrop would limit revenue growth across the industry and was forcing banks to shrink, pick areas of strength and focus far more on cost-cutting.
The future shape and size of Barclays’ investment bank is considered the most critical part of Jenkins’ review as the business contributes more than half of group profits.
Jenkins took over from Bob Diamond, who left the bank after a scandal over interest rate rigging for which Barclays was fined $450m.
The CEO is also attempting to drive through a change in culture and standards after a string of scandals, including Barclays’ fine for manipulating Libor interest rates, and mis-selling problems in Britain.
