LONDON (Reuters) -A British union that represents workers at Barclays said on Tuesday that the bank was cutting around 450 staff, as the lender cuts costs as it weighs a wider strategy overhaul.
The Unite trade union said its members were informed by the bank of the decision.
“We continue to review and adapt our operations based on the ways customers are choosing to interact with us,” a Barclays spokesperson said. “We are committed to supporting colleagues through this change, working closely with Unite.”
Reuters reported on Friday that Barclays was preparing to cut around 400 jobs in its retail bank, citing a source familiar with the matter, alongside hundreds of potential layoffs of underperformers in its investment bank.
Unite said in a statement that the job losses were “unnecessary and unjustified”.
“This isn’t an organisation struggling to survive, this bank is making billions of pounds of profits,” said Unite national officer Dominic Hook.
Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan is separately embarking on a wider strategy review, amid some investor dissatisfaction at the bank’s underperformance relative to Wall Street investment banks.
(Reporting by Iain Withers and Muvija M; editing by William James; Editing by Louise Heavens)
