A successful commercial bank struggling to stay in the investment banking business.
Pros
The bank has a long and rich history. Its retail and commercial banking operations are doing okay.
Cons
If you are contemplating a career at the investment banking division of Barclays, then you need to be aware of the following facts (The source of the facts can be googled easily): As of May, 2014, Barclays announced that it will cut 19,000 jobs by year 2016. (Source BBC News, Guardian) Of the 19,000 job cuts, 7,500 will be in its investment banking division. (Source Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance) Barclays was fined $450 million for its manipulation of the global benchmark interest rate (the LIBOR scandal). (Source USA Today, CNBC) Barcalys is currently under investigation for its manipulation of the global foreign exchange market. (Source Bloomberg, Guardian) The crucial issue, however, is that the return on equity at its investment banking division is a meagre 2.7% (Source Bloomberg, Barclays Annual Report), far below the bank's target of 12% and its other divisions. When the return of equity of its peer bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reached such a low level, RBS decided to phase out its investment banking business over the next four years.
