Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, the fourth-largest U.K. bank, plans to cut about 2,100 jobs at its investment bank, fund management and private banking units.

“We have begun a process of reduction in headcount across some parts of our investment banking and investment management businesses to ensure we are appropriately sized given the current market conditions,” London-based spokesman Simon Eaton said in a telephone interview today.

About 1,300 jobs will be cut at Barclays Capital, 6 percent of the investment banking unit’s total headcount, while 330 people will go at Barclays Global Investors, 8 percent of that division. The remainder will be cut from Barclays’s private bank. The bank said last week it will eliminate 408 information technology jobs in the U.K.

The cuts follow the more than 3,000 jobs Barclays cut last year as it acquired bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s trading and investment-banking operations for $1.75 billion. The bank raised 7 billion pounds ($10.5 billion) in November, mainly from Qatari and Abu Dhabi funds, to bolster capital reserves depleted by writedowns.

Barclays dropped 10 percent to 165.9 pence in London trading today, its biggest decline since Nov. 19.

U.K. banks, insurers and financial-services companies may cut as many as 15,000 jobs in the first quarter to reduce costs amid a decline in business confidence, the Confederation of British Industry said yesterday. Revenue and profitability in the financial-services industry fell at a record rate in the final quarter, the CBI said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jon Menon in London at jmenon1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 13, 2009 13:23 EST