Barclays Plc is exiting residential mortgage and commercial mortgage backed securities trading and asset-backed derivative in the U.S., according to a memo seen by Bloomberg. Operations will be focused on origination-led ABS and primary CMBS.
Meanwhile, chief executive officer Jes Staley unleashed a fresh round of cuts at the investment bank that will eliminate 1,200 jobs worldwide, people with knowledge of the matter said. While, the biggest cuts will fall in the Asia-Pacific region it will also be cutting jobs New York, they said.
Just over a month into his job, Staley is taking an ax to the investment bank that has seen the lender embroiled in a series of scandals over the past years.
Like his predecessor, Staley is seeking to shrink an investment bank that has sparked a series of legal settlements. Barclays paid 1.5 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) for rigging currency markets last year after a 290 million-pound ($410 million) penalty in 2012 for manipulating benchmark interest rates. The bank remains under investigation in Britain for its 2008 capital raising from Qatari investors, and the U.S. is probing allegations of misconduct tied to its dark pool.
Staley and Chairman John McFarlane are scheduled to present a broader strategic update alongside the bank's full-year results on March 1. A spokesman for Barclays in London declined to comment.
