Barclays Share News (BARC)

(ShareCast News) - Barclays is planning to cut more than 30,000 of its staff within two years as the struggling bank considers accelerating a group-wide cost-cutting programme after firing Antony Jenkins, its chief executive, this month. A radical redundancy programme that could lead to the lender's global workforce falling below 100,000 by the end of 2017 is thought to be the only way to address the bank's chronic underperformance and hit an ambitious target of doubling its share price, according to senior sources. - The TimesBanks in Greece will reopen today, three weeks after they were shut to stop a flood of withdrawals and save the country's financial system from collapse. Trading could also resume on the Athens stock market after being suspended nearly a month ago as the government clashed with international creditors over the terms of a new bailout. - The Daily Mail BAE Systems will have to limit its search for a new chief executive to a British national after the government indicated it was against relaxing its ban on a foreigner running the UK's premier defence company. The defence giant which builds Eurofighter Typhoons and Astute submarines and, for the United States, armoured vehicles and parts of the F-35 fighter, is "scanning the horizon" to find a successor to Ian King, its chief executive since 2008, who, at 59, is approaching retirement age. - The TimesSwedish retail giant Ikea has announced it will adopt the Government's new living wage from April 1 next year. The company said the move would affect 50pc of its 9,000 workers in the UK. It means that all Ikea employees across the UK, not just those over 25, will receive a minimum of £7.85 per hour and £9.15 per hour within London by 2016. - The Daily TelegraphLarge companies paid out £28.3bn in ordinary dividends during the second quarter of the year, sharing the benefits of the cheaper pound against the dollar with a 12.7% bigger windfall for investors compared to last year. The fall of the pound against the dollar has intensified the effect of the rising payments, boosting dividends by £800m according to estimates from Capita Asset Services. The jump goes some way to the currency translation pain experienced by investors in global firms in 2014. - The Daily Telegraph