Barclays to update on group strategy, investment bank in May

Barclays on Thursday said it will provide a group strategy update next month amid reports of further job cuts as part of the lender's restructuring. The UK lender will address institutional investors and analysts in London on May 8th.The bank's session, hosted by Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins and Group Finance Director Tushar Morzaria, will update the market on its strategy across each of the group's businesses to deliver "improved and sustainable returns and growth for shareholders". Barclays will update investors on investment bank's positioning Barclays will lay out its group structure and focus, positioning of the Investment Bank and an update on cost cuts.The statement came after an internal memo was leaked to the media on Jenkins' plans."By early May I am confident that we will have...set a clear course for the next stage of our journey to build a better Barclays which can deliver sustainable returns and growth over the cycle," Jenkins said.He warned that a shake-up of the group could potentially cost thousands more jobs at the investment bank, but ruled out a full-scale retreat from the division."The future for Barclays will be as a strong, focused, international bank. And the investment bank will continue to be a part of that mix," he said.The boss is under pressure from shareholders to improve returns after posting a sharp fall in 2013 profit. In February he announced the bank would cut around 12,000 jobs from its 139,600- strong workforce, and reduce the size of its balance sheet to meet new regulations.In a separate statement Barclays also named Eric Felder head of markets and said Joe McGrath and Richard Taylor will be co-heads of banking. They will report to investment bank chiefs Tom King and Eric Bommensath.Shares rose 4.25% to 247.65p at 14:08.RD