Barclays – Could cut 7,500 jobs

Barclays Plc (BARC), the U.K.’s second-largest bank by assets, could eliminate 7,500 jobs at its investment bank to improve returns at its securities unit, according to a report by Sanford C. Bernstein. 

The European fixed-income, currencies and commodities business, or FICC, may be the hardest hit, with about 5,000 job losses, analysts led by Chirantan Barua said in a note yesterday. Cuts of 6,500 to 7,500 equate to between 25 percent and 30 percent of the unit’s employees, the report estimated. London-based Barclays should eliminate managing directors first, followed by more junior positions, Barua said.

“The U.S. broker-dealers have been far more proactive in attacking this situation than the European peers,” he wrote. “It has to be cross-sectors, trading desks not only commodities, as the very risk-taking nature of the business has fundamentally changed and is not reflected in people stacks.”

via Barclays May Cut 7,500 Investment Bank Jobs, Bernstein Says (1) – Businessweek.