Just over a month in his new post, Barclays’ CEO, Jes Staley, has taken an ax at the investment banking arm of the firm cutting around 1,200 jobs and pulling out of several Asian countries.
Barclays said the cutbacks form part of the 19,000 job cuts announced in May 2014 to refocus on the UK, the US and serving clients globally. A memo sent by Barclays’ investment banking chief executive, Tom King mentioned that the U.S. is “one of our two home market franchises, in the world’s largest single pool of capital, our leading U.S. business is another distinct competitive advantage for Barclays.”
The UK bank plans to pull out of countries like Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil, and Russia, offering banking coverage for those countries from other locations.
Barclays plans to keep offices in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore and India.