Barclays Investment Bank Cuts Mark Europeans’ Retreat
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Barclays Plc’s decision to shrink its investment bank shows how tighter rules and dwindling revenue are forcing Europe’s lenders to scale back operations and efforts to compete globally.
In a break from his predecessor’s strategy to create a global securities operation, Barclays Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins said yesterday the lender will eliminate 7,000 jobs, a quarter of employees at the investment bank, shrink its fixed-income business and focus on fewer clients in the U.K. and U.S. The fixed-income market faces a structural rather than a cyclical decline and investment-banking revenue will be “weak for some time,” Jenkins told reporters.