Barclays Cuts 3,700 Jobs In Bank Shake-Up

Barclays has announced 3,700 job cuts amid plans to cut £1.7bn in costs and improve standards.

Of these job losses, 1,800 will be in its corporate and investment bank and 1,900 will be in European retail and business banking.

Some 1,600 jobs have already been cut in the investment banking business since the start of the year, Barclays said.

Sky News revealed on Monday that thousands of jobs would go outside its investment bank as part of a streamlining programme overseen by the company's new boss Antony Jenkins.

But despite the redundancies, the bank - Britain's second largest - revealed it would still pay £1.85bn in bonuses to staff.

On average, payouts in its investment bank were £54,100, and the average bonus across the group was £13,300 - although these are below 2011's levels.

Mr Jenkins, who became Barclay's chief executive in August, told Sky's Jeff Randall the bank had made mistakes in the past

"We've got to do business in the right way - the right business in the right way," he said.

"I'll be very honest, we did get things wrong at Barclays in the past, as people in the industry did.

"We were too short-term focussed, we were too self-serving and on occasion we were too aggressive."

He also warned the bank would not be as profitable in the future as it had been in the past.

It comes as Barclays reports adjusted pre-tax profit of £7.048bn for the 12 months to the end of December - a rise of more than 26% on 2011.

Its investment bank performed even better, with profit before tax up 37% at £4.063bn.

Statutory pre-tax profit - which includes the fund set aside to compensate those mis-sold payment protection insurance, among other charges - was £248m.

Mr Jenkins revealed the outcome of a strategic review at the bank - known as Project Transform - which will see the group's total cost base reduced by £1.7bn to £16.8bn in 2015.

The bank also confirmed that its controversial tax avoidance unit would close, as revealed by Sky's City Editor.

"We intend to change what Barclays does and how we do it and have set out clear commitments against which our progress can be measured," Mr Jenkins said in a statement.

He announced he was waiving his bonus for 2012 earlier this month.

The bank's profit comes despite a difficult year at the bank, which saw its reputation - and the banking industry's as a whole - come under pressure.

Last week, Barclays said it had increased funds put aside for mis-selling to consumers and businesses by another £1bn, taking the total to £2.6bn.

And in the summer the bank was fined £290m for manipulating the interbank borrowing rate, Libor.