Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) is looking at ditching thousands of its investment bank clients amid a strategic overhaul to bolster its bottom line and cut £1 billion of costs, according to the Financial Times.
Chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan is under pressure to reduce Barclays’ reliance on investment banking and return more capital to investors, with a public announcement expected in February.
The FT said Barclays is likely to focus on cutting ties with its least profitable investment banking clients, citing people close to the situation.
This could mean ending relationships with more than 2,500 customers out of a total of more than 10,000.
Barclays executives have met several times this year to thrash out the restructuring, codenamed Minerva after the Roman goddess of wisdom, according to the report.
Last week, Reuters reported the bank was drawing up restructuring plans that could involve axing as many as 2,000 jobs.
The job cuts would be mostly in the London-based bank's back office, Reuters said, citing "a person with direct knowledge of the proposals".
Shares in Barclays are down 0.3%.