Banks

Barclays axe swinging over investment bank jobs

An overhaul in the pipeline for Barclays
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An overhaul in the pipeline for Barclays

Barclays is braced for further job losses at its investment bank, as the re-shaping of the bank continues.

The bank, which has attracted opprobrium over bonus payouts while results disappointed, will announce the results of a review into its investment banking operations by the summer. It has already announced job cuts of 12,000 in the bank as a whole this year.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Since the scandal over manipulation of the London interbank offered rate (Libor) exploded in 2012, Bob Diamond and Rich Ricci, the two executives responsible for much of Barclays' investment bank's expansion, have departed, and the bank has had to raise £5.8 billion of new capital. The fund-raising was needed to address new banking regulations which mean that it has to hold more capital against the amount it is lending to guard against future economic shocks. Barclays hopes to increase this ratio to 3.5 percent in 2014, up from just under 3 percent at the end of 2013.

Earlier this year, Barclays, which employs close to 140,000 people in total, announced that it had increased bonus payments by 10 percent to £2.4 billion ($4 billion) last year – despite a hefty fall in pre-tax profits. Investment banking currently accounts for about a half of Barclays' earnings.

(Read more: UK bankers face bonus clawback in clampdown)

Antony Jenkins, the bank's chief executive, then attracted criticism from shareholders after giving an interview in which he said that the bank had to pay out bonuses to keep staff and avoid going into a "death spiral." Jenkins chose to forgo his own bonus this year.

Within investment banking, the fixed income side of the business is believed to have been performing particularly badly, according to a source close to the bank.

Tom King and Eric Bommensath, co-heads of the investment bank, are not at risk of losing their jobs at the moment. A Barclays spokesman said that there are no plans for leadership change at the division.

- By CNBC's Catherine Boyle. Twitter: @cboylecnbc.