Barclays cuts: Scottish job fears as banking giant’s AI push sees 5,000 jobs slashed
“The UK banks have an additional hurdle to overcome in the form of the imminent Budget” – Richard Hunter, Interactive Investor
Banking giant Barclays expects to cut around 5,000 staff after increasing its use of artificial intelligence.
The banking group said the figure is the equivalent of about 5 per cent of all its employees, which totalled around 93,000 globally at the end of 2025.
Some 1,000 of the affected roles were cut during the first half of 2026, and the remainder are spread out over the second half of the year. The majority of the reductions relate to operational and functional roles across the group.
The move will spark concerns north of the Border where the bank has built a state-of-the-art campus that can house thousands of staff next to the River Clyde in Glasgow.
Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, known within the bank as Venkat, said the headcount change was “a result of the investments which we’ve made into technology over a number of years and which we continue to make”.
This has seen the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) to make some work processes more efficient, which has meant the bank can employ fewer roles such as developers. Barclays is coming towards the end of a three-year strategy to boost performance, which has involved major cost-cutting and ramping up technology capabilities.
In the third quarter, the group made some £200 million worth of “structural cost actions”, part of about £600m made during the year. The bulk of the cost cutting came from the UK retail bank, but a proportion was also in its investment bank.
Barclays said it has a further roughly £300m worth of savings planned for the final three months of the year.
It comes as the bank reported a pre-tax profit of £2.3 billion for the three months to the end of September, which was 12 per cent higher than the same period a year ago.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, part of Aberdeen Group, said: “Compared to its own high standards, this update is something of a mixed bag which is unlikely to blow away the clouds which have been hovering over the sector.
“Indeed, the UK banks have an additional hurdle to overcome in the form of the imminent Budget. The sector has underperformed so far this year on a number of concerns, one of which is the bank surcharge.
“One market estimate suggests that the bank surcharge will be returned to 8 per cent from the current 3 per cent which in turn would reduce earnings by a possible 6 per cent, although whatever the outcome some of the uncertainty which has been overhanging the banks would be removed.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Barclays’ bumper profits aren’t an anomaly. All the big banks are doing exceptionally well at the same time - but their windfall profits have been underpinned by mortgage misery for millions. That’s why it’s time for banks to pay a fairer share.
“Britain’s big four banks have made £200bn in profit since 2021. They can - and should - pay more tax.”
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