Troubled British bank Barclays is expected to make a new round of job cuts, axing more than 1,000 positions across its New York, London and particularly in the Asia divisions, Bloomberg News reported. Bloomberg said the job cuts would "particularly affect employees in Asia," citing a person briefed on the matter.
Barclays is one of several banks implementing job cuts in a tough environment for investment banks, as slowing global growth and stricter capital rules affect lenders. Barclays' Chief Executive James Staley announced the December selling of the lender's Italian retail branch division as "re-shaping of Barclays group to focus on our core businesses." The Financial Times reported that Barclays planned to quit investment banking operations across much of Asia, and scale back in parts of Europe and Latin America, to focus on its central US and British markets.