LONDON — About 5,000 Barclays jobs will go this year. The bank put the cuts at roughly 5% of its workforce on Thursday, tying them to artificial intelligence and other technology meant to cut fixed costs and lift returns.
One thousand of those cuts have already taken effect. Chief Financial Officer Anna Cross told reporters the other 4,000 will come by the end of the fourth quarter, according to Reuters.
Around 60% of the jobs going are in support functions, and developers are among those affected. Barclays has been simplifying how it works and standardizing systems that, in some parts of the bank, are decades old.
Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan told reporters the bank would use AI at scale, but he played down its part in the cuts. “We will employ AI at scale,” he said. AI, he said, amounted to “the icing on the cake, not the cake.”
Thursday brought the cuts and the bank’s third-quarter numbers together. Pre-tax profit rose 12% from a year earlier to £2.3 billion, and Barclays also set out a fresh £500 million buyback.
Trading was mixed. Revenue from fixed income and currency trading fell 19% to £1.01 billion, a result Venkatakrishnan called “somewhat disappointing.” On equities, revenue rose 47% — the desk’s best quarter since at least 2009.
The cuts are a late piece of Venkatakrishnan’s turnaround work. He launched the three-year plan in early 2024, with lower costs at its center, and Barclays is not alone: Commerzbank in Germany and DNB in Norway have also set out job-cutting plans this year.
Have something to promote?
Bring your business, services or event to our readers.
