Barclays to overhaul back office ops & set up standalone entity, Barclays Services
Barclays in £1bn back office overhaul
Barclays is embarking on a major back office operations overhaul, with the creation of a standalone company, Barclays Services, according to Reuters.
Barclays Services will support the operations of the bank’s retail and investment businesses once they are formally separated.
Barclays needs to comply with new post-crisis rules that demand ring-fencing the banks’ retail operations from riskier businesses – hence the restructuring.
The aim of having one standalone back office support unit is to enable business continuity should either of the two businesses struggle, and keep the costs down by having a single ops unit instead of two separate ones, Reuters quotes sources close to the project.
The restructuring is understood to impact most of the 10,000+ strong workforce in Barclays’ back offices operations across 17 countries.
According to Reuters, it will group together Barclays’ operations in India and South Africa that provide tech and data management support, plus functions such as regulatory compliance, corporate relations, legal affairs and human resources.
Paul Compton, Barclays’ new COO (he joined last year from JP Morgan), is overseeing the creation of Barclays Services.
No details regarding any potential job losses as a result or the size of the new company. Reuters reports there is confusion among some back office workers regarding which entity they will end up working for and whether their jobs are safe.
The structure of Barclays Services is expected to be formalised by April this year, with the operations starting in September.
Barclays put aside £1 billion to comply with the ring-fencing rules, and the back office overhaul would use up most of these funds, Reuters quotes sources close to the project.
