Barclays to axe at least 3,700 jobs (From South Wales Argus)

Barclays to axe at least 3,700 jobs

8:11am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in News

Scandal-hit banking giant Barclays, which has six branches in Gwent, has said it was axing at least 3,700 jobs under a strategic overhaul, but revealed it was paying £1.85 billion in bonuses to staff.

Chief executive Antony Jenkins is shutting the bank's controversial Structured Capital Markets tax advisory division and said 1,800 jobs would go in corporate and investment banking and another 1,900 across its European retail and business arm as part of a plan to slash costs by £1.7 billion.

Nearly £2.5 billion of cash set aside to cover mis-selling compensation claims contributed to a plunge in pre-tax profits to £246 million in 2012 from £5.9 billion the previous year.

Its bonus pot will mean each employee gets £13,300 on average, with an average of £54,100 for investment banking staff, although the pool is lower than the £2.2 billion paid out last year.

Barclays has three branches in Newport and one each in Cwmbran, Risca and Newbridge.