Barclays to cut 12,000 jobs, pays bigger bonuses

This is interesting to see. I'd had a few comments forming on just the headline alone, but quickly saw my feelings were already echoed by the story.

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays said it would axe up to 12,000 jobs this year even as it raised bonuses for investment bankers, prompting fury among politicians and unions who said it had not learned the lessons of the financial crisis.

Britain's third-biggest bank said up to 9 percent of employees could go, including 7,000 in Britain, as it tries to lower costs. The cuts are not concentrated in any one business area.

It said it paid 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in incentive awards last year, raising bonuses at the investment bank by 13 percent despite a slump in its profits. The average bonus for the investment bank's 26,200 staff was 60,100 pounds.

Source

Painful. Layoff the low and payoff the high level workers. Ouch... I'd say the commentary is right and nothing has been learned.

I'd just seen this in another spot too.... Perhaps Barclays has bigger things to be paying attention to?

As many as 27,000 Barclays (BCS) customer files with personal and financial information have been stolen, according to a whistleblower report published by the Daily Mail.

The files included details such as income, savings, mortgages, health issues, insurance policies, passport and national insurance numbers -- data that brokers could use for investment scams. It's unclear how the information was stolen.

Source

What got my attention most on this second one wasn't the data theft. That's becoming common enough, unfortunately. It was the source attributed. It required a whistleblower to learn? I wonder who got a bonus for keeping that quiet up to now? Hmm..

Well, the world keeps turning and the financial world keeps on with the same 'ol.... Hard news for the 12,000 thrown to the curb tho.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Looks like it's going to be a rough year regardless of where you are.

Too bad they don't have ObamaCare to blame the lay offs on. I suppose they don't need a reason since people seem to accept lay offs for pay for the top people is good business now.

beezzer
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Looks like it's going to be a rough year regardless of where you are.

Yep. Barclays wouldn't be cutting all those employees if they were needed. It's time for everyone to do a self-assessment and see if it's time to find a position a business can't survive without. Paper shufflers and middle management are getting more than a cursory review.

Paying a bonus for doing a bad job that makes sense. Sounds like they are run by the same people that run the banks here. The heads of these banks said we have to offer things like this to attract the best and the brightest. They just need to figure out the best and the brightest at what. Failing?

I think this is going to be the year that everything falls apart. These people on the top do not understand the way things work, they are on a suicide mission both for their corporations and personal safety. I think a lot of these people will be targeted in the future by the people they are screwing over. Just an opinion I have, I have seen a few elite with that attitude wind up loosing everything, even their lives.