Barclays

  • 18 Jan 2011 at 1:05 PM

DE Shaw Not Really Feeling Barclays

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The hedge fund has taken a £100m short position in the bank. Read more »

  • 13 Jan 2011 at 1:19 PM

Come Out And Watch A Bunch Of Financial Services Hacks Get Voluntarily Punched In The Face

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Next Wednesday night is the annual Corporate Challenge Boxing tournament, and beyond the fact that the event is for charity, $45 (or $1,400 for a ring-side table) seems like a pretty reasonable fee to be at least mildly amused at the sight of your “colleagues” taking to the ring. The participants hail from Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, RBC, and Chimera Securities, among other firms, have give themselves nicknames like “Plastic Paddy,” “The Huntington Hammer,” “Dragon Fist” and “Mister Softee,” and have prior boxing experience as diverse as “several tournaments” to “My friend once punched me in the face on a weekend in Prauge.” Let’s meet them now. Read more »

  • 13 Jan 2011 at 12:24 PM

BarCap Employee Will Be Out Of The Office From Now ‘Til Forever

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From: [redacted at Barclays]
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 11:59 AM
Subject: I am out of the office … forever!

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  • 12 Jan 2011 at 10:20 AM

Layoffs Watch ’11: BarCap

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Cuts going down circa now. Read more »

  • 11 Jan 2011 at 12:43 PM

Will Bob Diamond Take A Bonus This Year?

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The short answer: yes.

The slightly longer answer: Read more »

  • 11 Jan 2011 at 11:57 AM

Bob Diamond Will Not Be Limiting Bonuses For Barclays Staff This Year, Would Appreciate It If The Bank Bashers Would Piss Off, Buy A Clue

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Earlier this morning across the pond, Bob Diamond told the House of Commons Treasury Committee that while payouts will be distributed “responsibly,” Barclays employees will be awarded bonuses that reflect the work they’ve done this year and will not be dictated by some arbitrary cap. Why won’t BD listen to the repeated calls from the government and the people to limit pay? Because to do so would in essence be saying “sorry, we were wrong,” and guess what, Bub? The days when Barclays would get down on its hands and knees and beg for forgiveness from the masses are over. “There was a period of remorse and apology for banks,” Bobby said. “I think that period needs to be over.” And while we’re on the subject? Remind Bob again why exactly an institution like Barclays should even be apologizing for in the first place? It’s just not exactly clear to him given that you seem to have two types of banks in the UK- the kind like Barclays, which did nothing wrong and the kind like RBS, which can’t do anything right. And yet, they’re treated one and the same. Read more »

  • 03 Jan 2011 at 11:33 AM

FSA Has Fun New Idea For Bonuses

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Let the people decide. Read more »

  • 15 Dec 2010 at 1:21 PM

Some British Bankers Fighting For Their Rights More Than Others

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Perhaps rightfully so, British bankers have had it up to here [here] with their government. The anger stems from freaky ass rules officials would like to impose on financial services chippies (for instance, rules that would cap top execs’ cash bonuses at 20 percent of total total compensation and proposals to tax the shit out of them) and the general feeling that the government is too mean to bankers. So sick are they that enough is enough. Led by Barclays chief John Varley and British Bankers Association head Angela Knight, a “fresh effort” has been waged to say “we’re not going to take this anymore.” How serious is this thing? Serious enough to warrant a code name involving wizards. Read more »

  • 30 Nov 2010 at 11:17 AM

Bob Diamond’s One-Man Cheering Squad Has Not Gone Unnoticed

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“Bobtimistic” is how Rich Ricci, Barclays Capital’s new co- chief executive officer, described Diamond’s eternally upbeat attitude to assembled executives in September as he introduced a five- minute video send-off tribute, featuring a digital scrapbook titled “The Wonder Years,” with clips of Diamond hiking up his yellow suspenders in 1997 as he talked about making Barclays Capital a bond market leader; a mock image of him dressed like the children’s cartoon character Bob the Builder; his first pep talk to Lehman employees after acquiring the bankrupt broker-dealer in 2008; and photos of him with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, soccer stars of London’s Chelsea Football Club and pro golfer Phil Mickelson. [Bloomberg]

  • 16 Nov 2010 at 8:49 AM

Layoffs Watch ’10: Barclays Cuts Coming?

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Apparently yes. Read more »

  • 30 Aug 2010 at 4:10 PM

Going Through Lehman’s Books Was Like Playing Elaborate Game Of MadLibs, Said Barclays Exec

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Barclays Plc had no idea how big Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s futures-and-options trading business was when it considered taking over the defunct bank’s derivatives trades at exchanges in 2008, a Barclays executive said. “Lehman’s books were in such a mess that I don’t think they knew where they were,” Elizabeth James, a director of Barclays’s futures business, testified today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. James worked on Barclays’s purchase of Lehman’s brokerage during the 2008 financial crisis. She said she received an e-mail from former Barclays trading executive Stephen King saying Lehman had “absolutely no idea” if it had sold $2 billion more options than it had bought, or whether it owned $4 billion more than it had sold. [Bloomberg via DI]