Barclays to cut up to 12,000 roles as profits slump

Barclays has said it intends to cut up to 12,000 jobs this year, including 7,000 in the UK, as it reveals it has upped its staff bonus pool despite a drop in profits.

The bank, which has 140,000 staff in total, said it had already told about half of the staff affected. The job cuts follow a 5% reduction in the workforce in 2013, when it scrapped 7,650 roles. The details come after Barclays yesterday confirmed its full-year profit figures a day early, following their publication in a corporate diary column. The bank's statutory pre-tax profits for 2013 rose to £2.9bn, but adjusted pre-tax profits fell by 32% to £5.2bn. Barclays said its profits were hit by restructuring of the bank last year, including its withdrawal from certain lines of busi...