Barclay(NYSE:BCS)’s jobs-axe will hang for two more years - JPM

Northern, WI 03/20/2013 (avauncer) - Antony Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer of Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) down by 2.44% to close at $18.00 is planning on downsizing the company’s work-force over the next two years. A larger percentage of the reductions will be attributed to people quitting the company, retiring and no replacements being hired said Jenkins in his speech in London at the Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference. He told investors that online banking and automation has resulted in a dip in the need for a larger work force and that almost a third of employees will be cut over the next decade. This year 3,700 jobs will be eliminated and the target cost reduction for the company is $2.6 billion (1.7 billion pounds).

Entire banking industry downsizing
The company had posted net losses of 1.04 billion pounds for the year 2011, which had been a first for it over the last two decades. Global financial firms have been sparring with a bleak Euro-area economy and increasing pressure from regulatory bodies to trim compensation and raise more capital. On Feb 26, The biggest U.S bank JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) down by 0.63% to close at $49.20 said that it will be eliminating close to 19,000 jobs in its community and mortgage banking sectors right through to 2014 as part of its cost-cutting measures. The global economy is in for an extended period of subdued growth said Jenkins but that they have made a good start this year.

In the event that the firm is forced by U.S regulators to form an intermediate holding company for conducting operations within the country, it is making plans for that as well. He said that the company understands the motive of the regulators and that they are there is a constructive and transparent dialog between them.