LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc is atleast halfway through the repositioning of its investment bankand nearly all of the changes to its front office operationswill be done this year, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
Barclays is cutting the size of its investment bank so itaccounts for about 30 percent of group capital, from 50 percentpreviously, and wants to improve its profitability so itdelivers return on equity of 12 percent.
"In terms of building that model, I would say we areprobably between 50 percent and two-thirds of the way there. Wehave some further work to do this year in terms of positioningthe front office, then there's work to streamline the middle andback offices," he told reporters at a press conference followingsecond quarter results.
Jenkins said he expects most of the front office changes totake place this year, while the middle and back office changeswill run into next year. It will also take time to run downlegacy investment bank assets that have been put into a pool ofnon-core assets the bank no longer wants. (Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Matt Scuffham)