Barclays to Cut 5,000 Jobs This Year as AI Reshapes the Bank

Barclays said on Thursday, October 22, that it will cut around 5,000 jobs this year, about 5 percent of its workforce, as it uses technology such as artificial intelligence to reduce fixed costs and improve overall returns.

About 1,000 of the cuts have already been made, and 4,000 more will come by the end of the fourth quarter, chief financial officer Anna Cross told reporters. Barclays employed about 93,000 people around the world at the end of 2025, according to a presentation the bank gave with its results.

Announced with the quarterly results

The bank set out the cuts in its third quarter results on Thursday. It said it is "structurally reducing" its cost base to "generate capacity for investment." The savings come from simplifying the organization and from efficiency gains driven by AI, the bank said, and the reductions fall mainly on support functions, including software developers.

Barclays has not published a breakdown of the cuts by country. The announcement is one of the clearest statements yet from a major bank tying a large round of job losses directly to AI and other technology, a link bank executives have often discussed in general terms but rarely attached to a specific headcount in a results statement.

Profit rises 12 percent, but misses forecasts

Barclays reported pretax profit of 2.3 billion pounds for the three months to the end of September, up 12 percent from the same period a year earlier. The figure fell short of the 2.4 billion pounds analysts had expected. The bank also said it will hand back an additional 500 million pounds to shareholders through a share buyback.

Inside the investment bank, the quarter split in two. Income from equities trading jumped 47 percent to 1 billion pounds, helped by prime finance and derivatives fees. Income from the fixed income, currencies and commodities unit fell 19 percent to 1 billion pounds, against expectations of a small rise. Investment bank revenue overall was 3.1 billion pounds, up 1 percent, below the 3.3 billion pounds analysts had predicted.

"The investment bank delivered strong equities performance, offsetting a challenging environment for FICC," chief executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan told journalists, using the standard short name for the fixed income unit. He added that he was pleased with the momentum of the bank's operational and financial performance.

Income at the bank's UK retail and corporate businesses rose, as did income at its wealth management arm. The UK unit's net interest margin, the gap between what the bank charges borrowers and pays savers, edged up to 3.69 percent from 3.68 percent a year earlier.

A three year cost drive reaches the jobs line

Barclays booked structural cost actions worth 201 million pounds in the third quarter and plans about 300 million pounds more in the final three months of the year. The bank is near the end of a three year strategy built around boosting returns and cutting costs, and Thursday's statement puts the jobs number on that strategy for the first time at this scale.

For the roughly 5,000 staff affected, the cuts land in two waves: 1,000 roles already gone, and 4,000 more to go before the end of December, according to the timetable Cross gave reporters.