Barclays Said to Plan Cutting 50 Indian Corporate Banking Jobs
July 16, 2011, 10:05 AM EDTBy George Smith Alexander
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s second- largest bank by assets, plans to eliminate about 50 jobs in India as it narrows its focus on large companies in the nation, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The bank cut 25 jobs this week and will reduce a similar number of positions in the next few months, the people said, declining to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak on the matter.
Barclays Capital, the investment banking unit of the U.K.- based lender, and the company’s commercial banking division are combining the teams that focus on servicing corporate clients in the South Asian nation, said Clare Williams, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Barclays. She declined to comment on the number of jobs being eliminated. The bank may sell the 500 million pounds ($807 million) of loans it made to small and medium-sized companies in India, one of the people said.
“There will regrettably be a small reduction in the number of corporate coverage and product bankers at Barclays,” Williams said in an e-mail response. “This recognizes the close alignment between these two businesses as they focus on serving the needs of India’s largest companies, multinationals and financial institutions.”
Karan Bhagat, managing director and country head for Barclays Corporate, the commercial banking unit, will also leave the firm, Williams said. Jaideep Khanna, managing director and head of investment banking, will lead the merged team, she said. Bhagat didn’t answer two calls made to his mobile phone.
Clients, Loans
Barclays is offering employees who have been asked to leave three months of salary and another month of remuneration for every year of service, one of the people said. The bank is also asking recruitment firms to help the affected employees, the person said. Barclays has 5,000 workers in India, Williams said.
Barclays’ Indian unit had outstanding loans of 76 billion rupees ($1.7 billion) as of March 31, 2010, according to Crisil Ltd., a credit assessor controlled by Standard Poor’s. Barclays Capital has been operating in India for the past three decades, while Barclays Corporate started its commercial bank operations in November 2006 and consumer banking in May 2007.
The bank has 2,000 commercial clients including large Indian corporates, small and medium enterprises and Indian companies looking to grow overseas, according to its website.
Barclays in India “has now significantly curtailed its retail growth following a sharp rise in delinquencies in 2008- 09,” Crisil said in the report on March 7.
--With assistance from Abhishek Shanker in Mumbai. Editors: Arijit Ghosh, Guy Collins
To contact the reporter on this story: George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net
