Barclays is cutting 5,000 jobs this year, with software developers losing more positions than any other group as the bank pushes artificial intelligence deeper into its operations. That is about 5% of its 93,000 staff worldwide and executives said on Thursday that 1,000 of those roles had already gone since January.
Chief financial officer Anna Cross told reporters the reductions were tied to a plan to save more than £1.1bn in 2027. “These actions involve an expected reduction of circa 5,000 full-time employees,” she said. “Around 60% of the group actions relate to support functions, including fewer developers as AI makes our people more productive.”
Pressed on how many cuts could be laid directly at AI’s door, chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan pointed to wider technology investment and streamlined processes as the main driver of the savings so far. “AI has an important role to play and may have a more important role to play in the future,” he said, describing the technology as the “icing on the cake” of the bank’s modernisation. “We have been focusing on the infrastructure build and where the infrastructure is modern, we’ve been applying AI.”
The announcement echoes a move by Standard Chartered, another UK-based lender, which said a few months ago it would shed more than 7,000 jobs over four years as it expands its own AI use, cutting roughly 15% of back-office roles by 2030.
Barclays paired the cuts with a sweetener for investors. Pre-tax profits hit £2.3bn for the July to September quarter, up 12 per cent from £2.1bn a year earlier and the bank will return a further £500m through a share buyback. That lifts the total handed to shareholders since January, across buybacks and dividends, to £2.8bn.
The figures arrive days before the budget. Chancellor John Healey is set to unveil a tax rise on banks on 28th October, as Andy Burnham’s government hunts for revenue to fund cost of living support. Barclays reported a 6% rise in net interest income at its UK retail arm, to £2bn, a number that has drawn fire from campaigners. It measures what banks earn from loan charges minus what they pay out on deposits and tracks interest rates, which have climbed as the Iran war pushed up inflation expectations.
The Trades Union Congress, which wants a higher levy on lenders, said banks should pay more while households wrestle with bills. “Barclays’ bumper profits aren’t an anomaly,” said TUC general secretary Paul Nowak. “That’s why it’s time for banks to pay a fairer share.” He said Britain’s big four banks had booked £200bn in profit since 2021 and “can, and should, pay more tax.”
Healey has promised the budget will back entrepreneurs and lower the cost of doing business. “I want to be a chancellor who backs business in Britain making a profit,” he told the Times, praising those who “challenge the status quo, come up with innovative ideas and are trying, some of them through sheer bloody-mindedness, to keep going through these sorts of pressures.”
