Barclays working on $1.25b cost saving plan

LONDON, Dec 25 (Express Tribune): Barclays is working on plans to save up to 1 billion pounds ($1.25 billion), which could involve cutting as many as 2,000 jobs, mainly in the British bank's back office, a person with direct knowledge of the proposals told Reuters.
Managers at Barclays, led by Chief Executive CS Venkatakrishnan who is known within the bank as Venkat, are reviewing proposals aimed at boosting profitability. As part of these, 1,500 to 2,000 jobs could be cut if the plans are implemented in full, the person said.
The potential cuts would primarily be at Barclays Execution Services, known internally as 'BX', and would form part of an overall target of reducing expenses by up to 1 billion pounds across the group over several years, the person added.
Analysts said the scale of the potential savings could reassure investors, given market forecasts had ranged from 500 million to 1.5 billion pounds in restructuring costs for the bank without much sense of how that would translate to savings.