Barclays has told staff at its UK retail banking operation that 1,700 of them – roughly equivalent to one employee per branch – will lose their jobs.
The cuts, which come on top of 350 job losses triggered by the closure of a Coventry call-centre last week, were prompted by customers’ increasing use of mobile and online services in preference to banking at its 1,500 branches, Barclays said.
The bank added that it would try to achieve the cuts through a voluntary redundancy scheme.
The announcement came a day after the bank revealed that Shaygan Kheradpir, its chief operations and technology officer had resigned. Mr Kheradpir, who is joining US technology company Juniper Networks as its new chief executive, had been responsible for overseeing Barclays’ vast cost-saving programme.
Early this year, chief executive Antony Jenkins promised to cut £1.7bn of costs by 2015 as part of his broader overhaul of the bank. He later told a meeting of investors that cost-cutting was his priority and he was wrestling with the challenge of “how [to] eventually turn this bank into one that can operate with 100,000 staff instead of 140,000”.
Barclays’ retrenchment from certain businesses round the world – particularly in continental Europe – has already cut headcount. But, contrary to expectations, Mr Jenkins has held back from making deep cuts to staff numbers at its investment banking operation.
The retail banking job losses will affect a range of staff, from cashiers up to branch managers, according to the Unite union.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4421d1c-4d58-11e3-bf32-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2nRTrqjqA
The cuts, which come on top of 350 job losses triggered by the closure of a Coventry call-centre last week, were prompted by customers’ increasing use of mobile and online services in preference to banking at its 1,500 branches, Barclays said.
The bank added that it would try to achieve the cuts through a voluntary redundancy scheme.
The announcement came a day after the bank revealed that Shaygan Kheradpir, its chief operations and technology officer had resigned. Mr Kheradpir, who is joining US technology company Juniper Networks as its new chief executive, had been responsible for overseeing Barclays’ vast cost-saving programme.
Early this year, chief executive Antony Jenkins promised to cut £1.7bn of costs by 2015 as part of his broader overhaul of the bank. He later told a meeting of investors that cost-cutting was his priority and he was wrestling with the challenge of “how [to] eventually turn this bank into one that can operate with 100,000 staff instead of 140,000”.
Barclays’ retrenchment from certain businesses round the world – particularly in continental Europe – has already cut headcount. But, contrary to expectations, Mr Jenkins has held back from making deep cuts to staff numbers at its investment banking operation.
The retail banking job losses will affect a range of staff, from cashiers up to branch managers, according to the Unite union.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4421d1c-4d58-11e3-bf32-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2nRTrqjqA
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