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
Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Jul 29, 2015

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.

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.

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.

Breaking the speed limit in a school zone, for example, will cost you a couple mill, while volunteering with your local Boy Scouts chapter to help the troops earn their "Libor Manipulation" badges will translate to a few extra zeros on payday. Barclays' new chief executive said he will pay employees based in part on whether they are good citizens, as the British bank tries to restore its tarnished reputation. Within the next six to 12 months, Barclays will devise a "balance scorecard" with metrics that measure performance across a range of areas, including how the actions of executives affect the environment, Antony Jenkins said in a brief interview on Sunday at the Clinton Global Initiative...Jenkins, who previously ran Barclays' business and retail banking division, said he managed the unit with a scorecard that rated employees on how their actions affected all stakeholders, including investors, customers, other employees and "society." The scorecard includes a "citizenship" component, according to a bank spokesman. Barclays New Chief Ties Compensation To Societal Goals [Reuters]