Barclays Pledges To Be Quick About Getting Its Sh*t Together

New CEO John "Mack the Knife" McFarlane has is machete out and is ready to hack through not only employees but all the red tape gumming up the works at the British bank.

Author:: Bess Levin
Publish date:: Jul 29, 2015
Updated on: Jan 14, 2019

In addition to layoffs and shrinking the investment bank, the turn around will involve streamlining the way things work so that, for example, a first year analyst feels comfortable slipping suggestions for ways to improve core businesses under senior executives's doors.

Barclays' new chairman sought to stamp his mark on the bank on Wednesday by accelerating the sale of assets and cost cutting after the group produced a 12 percent increase in second-quarter profits. Chairman John McFarlane, who arrived at Barclays in April with a reputation for taking bold action, laid out his plans for the bank after ousting Chief Executive Antony Jenkins earlier this month. He said the pace of change needed to accelerate. "Barclays ... remains far too hierarchical, bureaucratic and group-centric," McFarlane said. "I therefore want to see much more streamlined processes."

Barclays to speed up cost-cuts and asset sales [Reuters]

Related: Layoffs Watch ’15: New Barclays Chairman’s Nickname Involves The Word ‘Knife,’ So…

No more long, dragged out firings. No more dread-filled days wondering if HR is coming for you and, if so, when. If you're a Barclays employee set to be canned, you're getting canned A-SAP.

The bank is reportedly not doing enough to avoid money laundering types, among other things.

Earlier this week Barlcays promised not to dawdle when it comes to canning the 2,000 employees slated to be cut. Today employees in Asia got to experience that follow-through in action!

John McFarlane's reputation for telling staff to GTFO precedes him.

Remember when Bank of America said it was working on a little something called "Project New BAC," and it involved firing a whole bunch of employees? Barclays is apparently working on a coupla "projects" of its own.

Cuts are said to have gone down with more a-comin'. Barclays PLC is cutting about 50 employees from its equities business, the latest effort by the British bank to reduce costs at its investment-banking arm. A week ago, the U.K. lender announced internally that about 10% of the jobs at its equities business across Europe, Africa and the Middle East would be lost, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. During the first half of the year, Barclays's equities and prime services business, which employs about 500 people, saw revenue fall 12% on the year to £973 million ($1.57 billion). The business has suffered as market volumes have dried up in recent quarters...The work-force reduction could be a taste of things to come for Barclays's investment bank. At the beginning of 2009, former Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond hired more than 400 bankers, mainly in equities and research, as part of a drive to turn the predominately debt-focused bank into a multi-asset powerhouse. Following Mr. Diamond's departure in the wake of a rate-fixing probe, new CEO Antony Jenkins has started a review of the bank's businesses to assess their profitability and whether and how they affect the lender's reputation. This, combined with tougher regulatory requirements, is expected to result in Barclays shrinking its investment bank, analysts say. Barclays To Cut 50 Equities Jobs [WSJ]

New CEO Antony Jenkins has apparently been reading the Tarot cards on Barclays and what they're telling him is the bank is about to have 40,000 fewer employees.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Barclays' investment bank chief Rich Ricci was working on a little something called Project Mango,* which is similar to Bank of America's Project New BAC in that one aspect of it involves firing a bunch of people, as part of a plan to revamp the unit. According to the Journal, management is now putting the finishing touches on Project M and all that is left to decide is whether cutting 2,000 IBD jobs is enough or if they should think bigger.