Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs in AI-fuelled push to lower costs

Published Thu, Oct 22, 2026 · 04:47 PM

BARCLAYS said it’s cutting 5,000 jobs, or about 5 per cent of total headcount, as part of a “technology-enabled” effort to reduce costs as it adopts artificial intelligence across the bank.

The bank reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday (Oct 22) that missed several key estimates. Barclays’ bond traders suffered the biggest slump on Wall Street during the quarter, taking the shine off a strong performance on the equities desk.

Revenue from fixed income and currency trading fell 19 per cent compared with a year earlier to £1.01 billion (US$1.4 billion), behind analyst expectations compiled by Bloomberg.

That meant the equities traders, who posted a 47 per cent jump in revenue, almost matched that revenue haul with their best performance since at least 2009, the year after Barclays acquired the North American business of Lehman Brothers. 

The bank said the fixed-income result reflected lower client activity in rates and credit, and “further adversity in September due to the macroeconomic environment.”

On a call with reporters, chief executive officer CS Venkatakrishnan said the performance in FICC was “somewhat disappointing.”

“We will employ AI at scale,” Venkatakrishnan said on the call. “But AI is the icing on the cake, not the cake.”

Barclays cut about 1,000 jobs in the first six months of this year, with the remaining due before the end of 2026.

About 60 per cent of the job cuts are coming within support functions, including among developers. Barclays employed about 93,000 people globally at the end of 2025.

The London-based bank said it was “structurally reducing” costs to “generate capacity for investment.” It’s focusing on simplifying the organisation and increasing efficiency, driven by AI, according to a presentation.

Shares in Barclays were trading as much as 2.4 per cent lower as the London market opened.

The bank cut £201 million of costs in the three months through September, and plans to cut about £300 million more in the final quarter of the year.

Barclays’ retail bank couldn’t do enough to overcome weakness in the investment bank, with the UK retail unit broadly stable and the US consumer arm also roughly flat year on year, missing estimates. 

The bank stuck to its targets for the coming years, with operating expenses largely as expected in the quarter, and announced a £500 million share buyback.

Investors have been watching the bank’s cost control after it reported disappointingly high expenses in its half-year earnings, despite a fresh cost-cutting programme announced in February.

Peers including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America saw similar trends across fixed income desks, where revenue fell as much as 17 per cent year-on-year as they dealt with the impact of rising interest rates, which can push down the value of existing debt and crimp demand from clients to transact. 

Overall the Barclays investment bank slightly missed expectations with total income of £3.13 billion.

“With one quarter to go before the end of our original three-year plan, we have either achieved or are on track to achieve all of our 2026 group targets. We are confident in and committed to the 2028 targets that we laid out earlier in the year,” Venkatakrishnan said in a statement.

UK lenders are bracing for a rise in taxes on their earnings as part of the Labour government’s budget next week, which would use the proceeds to fund cost-of-living relief for households. BLOOMBERG