Barclays London Investment Bank Staff Sweat over Where Jobs Axe will Fall

Barclays' boss Antony Jenkins unveiled a range of radical moves to move the bank away from his predecessor Bob Diamond's legacy of risky profits by axing the bulk of investment bank jobs.

However, some London staff say that they are in a painful quandary as to where the axe will fall.

As part of the group's strengthened strategy of moving more towards High Street than Wall Street, Barclays confirmed 19,000 job cuts over the next three years along with the restructuring of a number of units.

This includes the creation of an internal "bad bank"' which hives off toxic or underperforming assets away from other units, as well as cutting how much the investment bank will contribute to the overall group.

"A number of us are concerned as to where the cuts are going to happen exactly, despite the announcement and our town hall meeting, as it was mentioned to be across both core and non-core units," one London-based investment banker told IBTimes UK.

Over the next three years, 7,000 Barclays' investment banking jobs will be cut across the globe, with one third of the cull borne in the UK.

Some 2,000 jobs will be cut this year, 2,500 in 2015, and 2,500 in 2016.

The bank revealed that the cuts will fall under a number of main sections [Figure 1].

Barclays' CEO of the corporate and investment banking unit, Tom King, told staff that the bank was making a "strategic shift from business run from revenue, to a business run from return".

Staff said King also promised that Barclays was "retaking the offensive".

However, some staff say that, while they understand that cuts need to be made in light of the Jenkins' strategy, a number of employees that have recently been promoted are still not sure whether that means their jobs are safe or not.

"Knowing the reasons for why jobs are being cut does not make a difference as to whether your particular job is at risk or not," one source said.

Barclays declined to comment about staff reaction to the cuts and reiterated that the bank gave full disclosure to the press over job cut plans.