Barclays Lays Out Revival Plan; Chairman Says, 'Accelerate The Execution Of The Strategy'

Barclays chairman John McFarlane, who stepped in after overthrowing Chief Executive Antony Jenkins, lays out the company's three-year plan. Chairman McFarlane wanted to accelerate the growth in earnings, capital generation and equity return and at the same time, cut out bureaucracy, according to Reuters.

"We need to accelerate the execution of the strategy," the chairman said. "Barclays ... remains far too hierarchical, bureaucratic and group-centric to deliver the required outcomes."

"I therefore want to see much more streamlined processes," he added.

The bank reportedly closed 98 branches in Britain, which is 6 percent of its network, by the end of June.

Part of the three-year plan is to cut 19,000 jobs by the end of 2016. That also includes 7,000 in investment bank.

To get rid of unwanted assets and to help break the cycle of slow revenue growth and high costs from the time of the financial crisis, the bank will retain the capital and hold the dividend steady at 6.5 pence per share this year, Fox Business reported.

Income from trading equities went down by 2 percent, compared with the 21 percent gain that was estimated by Citigroup Inc. for U.S securities firms in this quarter. The operating expenses for the quarter also dropped by 14 percent to 1.37 billion pounds, Bloomerg learned.

A for M&A, McFarlene said that he will reallocate the capital to the most profitable businesses because the unit's income continues to fall despite having a good year to make active deals.

Meanwhile, Barclays' investment bank posted an increase in profit of 35 percent. The pretax income also rose this quarter to 765 million pounds or $1.2 billion, up by 12 percent from last year.

There was an increase of as much as 3.3 percent in shares, Wednesday. Barclays' shares went up by 17 percent in 2015.  

Barclay's core capital increased from 10.3 percent at the end of 2014 to 11.1 percent at the end of June.

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