Barclays is set to cut about 100 jobs from its investment-banking unit this week, Sky News and Bloomberg reported Sunday.
The layoffs won’t be confined to one country or function within the business, sources told Sky News.
The move marks at least the second triple-digit headcount reduction at the bank within the past five months. Barclays cut roughly 200 jobs across the bank in November and, at the time, said it was continuing to hire across its investment-banking division for 365 open roles.
The bank, though, has seen investment-banking fees drop by about 50% year-over-year to $596 million in the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg.
And Barclays is hardly alone in trimming its staff. Morgan Stanley in December announced it would lay off roughly 1,600 employees. Goldman Sachs the next month, began a cull meant to encompass 3,200 people. BNY Mellon and Capital One followed suit with 1,500 and 1,100 job cuts, respectively.
Other banks have pulled out of businesses they see as non-core. Wells Fargo in January said it would exit correspondent lending and later made 500 more cuts to its home-lending division.
Truist last week said it aims to stop sales and trading of mortgage-backed securities and government-agency bonds by January 2024. Like Barclays, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender has seen two rounds of layoffs in recent months. It laid off roughly 5% of its investment-banking division — encompassing dozens of jobs — in late January, and followed up Thursday with another 80 in its Atlanta and Memphis, Tennessee, offices.
Even banks seen as relatively safe from cuts have become markedly less so in recent months. Bank of America, for example, indicated in September that it would manage headcount through attrition, but instituted a partial hiring freeze in January and reportedly cut 200 investment bankers the next month.
Citi, likewise, is cutting hundreds of positions, including some in investment banking, mortgage underwriting, and technology, Bloomberg and Reuters reported in March.
