Barclays expected to cut 2,000 jobs

Barclays is reportedly set to announce its plans to cut 2,000 jobs in its investment bank early next year.

The British banking giant is preparing to axe positions as part of a broad restructuring of the company, according to reports Thursday.

It is a fairly insignificant scale-back for the company which has about 23,000 full-time employees its total investment-banking workforce.

The news comes amid a number of global banking cut-backs with UBS AG and Citigroup revealing more than 20,000 job cuts in recent weeks.

Deutsche Bank, which has also made investment banking cuts, raised the target price of Barclays from 300p to 360p.

Barclays executives are expected to recommend cuts between 1,000 to 2,000 jobs in mainly Asia and continental Europe while protecting the bank's strong US and UK branches.

However there are some executives insisting on a more assertive line of action saying the bank can afford to shrink further in some areas, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

It is also understood the cuts may be the beginning of a larger number of job reductions throughout the company.

Antony Jenkins, who took over as Chief Executive in August from Robert Diamond following an interest-rate scandal, has been conducting detailed reviews of the business as part of an overhaul which is set to be announced next February.

Hector Sants, the former chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, is set to join the bank in January as the head of compliance in an effort to help improve the bank's reputation.

The jobs cuts and the final number are yet to be formalised by Jenkins and the board of Barclays.

RD