LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc has thisweek cut several hundred jobs in its investment bank as part ofits plan to shrink the business by 7,000 staff over the nextthree years to save costs, people familiar with the matter said.
The cuts will mostly be in the fixed income, currencies andcommodities (FICC) trading and markets businesses, rather thanin advisory and equities. FICC is the area that Barclays andseveral other banks such as UBS AG are scaling backdue to falling revenues and tougher regulations.
The precise number of job losses was not known, but therewill be cuts in Asia, Europe and the United States, the sourcessaid. The latest cuts add to more than 400 already made by theBritish bank in its investment bank this year.
Barclays Chief Executive Antony Jenkins last month reined inthe bank's ambitions to be a Wall Street powerhouse and said hewould cut about one in four jobs in the division, as part of aplan to cut 19,000 jobs across the bank.
"As stated on May 8, at the time of our strategy update,Barclays plans to reduce the headcount of its investment bank byapproximately 7,000 over the course of three years," a spokesmanfor Barclays said.
"These reductions are in line with our commitment to ahigher-returning investment bank with an origination-led bankingstrategy and a markets business focused on standardised, liquidproducts."
Jenkins is attempting to cut costs and improve profitabilityat the bank. Trading revenues in FICC, especially interest ratetrading, have slumped in the past year amid a low interest rateenvironment and banks have to hold more capital against thebusiness, driving down returns.
Shareholders were also angered when Barclays raised bonusesfor investment bank staff last year, despite a fall in profits. (Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by David Holmes)