Direct And Indirect
Barclays to cut
19,000 jobs over three years
Barclays is to cut 19,000 jobs by 2016, with about half to go in the UK,
the bank has said.
As part of a new strategy, the investment part of the bank will lose
about 7,000 jobs by the end of 2016.
Barclays' investment bank has been hit by a slowdown in the demand for
government and company debt.
Barclays will also set up a "bad bank" which will eventually
sell or run down £115bn of non-core operations.
These include £90bn of investment bank assets and all of its European
retail banking operations, amounting to £16bn of assets.
Retail banking in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France will be shifted to
non-core operations.
"Bad banks" have been used by a number of institutions since
the global financial crisis as a way of ring-fencing risky loans and assets.
The carve-up will give greater prominence to Barclays' retail operations
in the UK, its Barclaycard credit card arm and its African business.
"This is a
bold simplification of Barclays," said chief executive Antony Jenkins.
"We will be a focused international bank, operating only in areas
where we have capability, scale and competitive advantage."
Job losses
The majority of the job losses will happen this
year, with 14,000 jobs to be cut across the group in 2014.
The number is higher than the 10,000 to 12,000
global jobs that the bank previously said it wanted to cut this
year.
Around 8,000 of the 14,000 jobs to go this year
will be lost in the UK.
That figure of 14,000 includes more than 2,000
investment bank jobs that will go this year around the world.
Another 5,000 investment bank positions will be
lost by 2016.
The investment bank employs around 26,000 people,
a spokeswoman said.
The retail banking arm employs 32,900 people in
the UK, and around 5,900 in Europe.
Shares rise
In early trading on Thursday, Barclays shares were
up over 5%.
Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves
Lansdown stockbrokers, said:
"The news has been well received, although this is unquestionably a
long term game," he said.
"The separation of non-core assets, a
continued reduction of costs and a streamlining and focus on more profitable
operations all seem to make strategic sense."
However, the change of direction for Barclays
needs to be implemented both quickly and carefully "since investors'
patience on the banking sector as a whole is showing signs of wearing thin
after some years of rapid change," he added.
In the first quarter of this year, Barclay's
profits fell 5%, after its investment banking business was hit by a 28% slump
in revenue.
Revenue from trading in currencies, bonds and
commodities dropped 41% to £1.23bn.
BBC Business Editor Kamal Ahmed said on Wednesday
that Barclays could close up to 400 branches over the next few years, but that
an announcement about branch closures was not imminent.
In its statement on Thursday, Barclays made no
mention of any retail bank branch closures.
Russia 'planned Wall Street bear raid'
There is a cynicism in the relationship between Russia and
the US, being played out in the Crimean crisis, which is deep, rooted in
history and shows that the triumph of capitalism over communism wasn't the end
of the power game between these two nations.
The depth of mistrust between the two was highlighted in
the interview given by Hank Paulson, the former US treasury secretary, for my
recent BBC Two documentary, How China Fooled The World.
The excerpts I am about to quote never made it into the
film, because they weren't relevant to it. But they give a fascinating
understanding of the complex relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Mr Paulson was talking about the financial crisis of the
autumn of 2008, and in particular the devastation being wreaked on Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, the two huge underwriters of American mortgages - huge
financial institutions that had a funny status at the time of being seen by
investors to be the liability of the US government, which in legal reality were
not exactly that.
“
Start Quote
This person told me that the Chinese had received a
message from the Russians which was, 'Hey let's join together and sell Fannie
and Freddie securities on the market'”
Here is Mr Paulson
on the unfolding drama:
"When Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac started to become unglued, and you know there were $5.4tn
of securities relating to Fannie and Freddie, $1.7tn outside of the US. The
Chinese were the biggest external investor holding Fannie and Freddie
securities, so the Chinese were very, very concerned."
Or to put it another way, the Chinese government owned
$1.7tn of mortgage-backed bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it
was deeply concerned it would incur huge losses on these bonds.
Mr Paulson: "I was talking to them [Chinese ministers
and officials] regularly because I didn't want them to dump the securities on
the market and precipitate a bigger crisis.”
"And so when I went to Congress and asked for these
emergency powers [to stabilise Fannie and Freddie], and I was getting the
living daylights beaten out of me by our Congress publicly, I needed to call
the Chinese regularly to explain to the Central Bank, 'listen this is our
political system, this is political theatre, we will get this done'. And I
didn't have quite that much certainty myself but I sure did everything I could
to reassure them."
In other words, China had lent so much to the US that Mr Paulson
needed to do his best to persuade its government and central bank that China's
investment in all this US debt would not be impaired.
PDI-P vows to reject fuel
price hike
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician
Ganjar Pranowo said the party maintained its position against the government's
plan to raise subsidized fuel prices.
He said the plan opened a path for the government to
launch its direct assistance program, which he deemed as legitimized political
bribery approaching the 2014 general election.
"PDI-P will
never approve the plan even if we have to lose during the voting at the House
of Representatives," Ganjar said as quoted by Kontan.co.id on Friday.
Ganjar said that if the government
was really serious about protecting the poor from the impact of the subsidized
fuel price hike, it should have launched a program that would develop and
strengthen the
community instead of mere direct cash assistance.
For example, Ganjar said
the government could have launched a micro-credit program that would have
stimulated labor-intensive industries within villages throughout Indonesia.
PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri had earlier issued
an order to all party members, to garner support from the people opposed to the
government’s plan to increase the price of subsidized fuel .(dic)
Dust masks selling out
amid Mt. Kelud
eruption
Many drug stores in Semarang said they were running out of
dust masks as people continued to purchase them in large numbers for protection
against the ash that continues to rain down from the erupting Mount Kelud in
East Java.
“We are now running
out of stock as people have been buying them since this morning,” Ani, an
employee at Karangrejo drug store in Semarang, said on Friday.
Murtiyati, resident of Pedurungan, had bought dust masks
for herself and her children. Andriyanto, another resident, said the thick ash
could have damaging effects on one's respiratory system if a dust mask wasn't
worn.
“I learned from the Mt. Merapi eruption a few years ago
that you should not underestimate the effects of thick ash,” he said.
Semarang, like many other cities across East and Central
Java, is now covered in thick ash. Limited visibility from the ash has forced
Ahmad Yani airport to halt operations.
DIRECT AND INDIRECT
Simple Present : "This is
a bold simplification of Barclays," said chief executive Antony Jenkins.
Future Continous : "We will be a focused international bank,
operating only in areas where we have capability, scale and competitive
advantage."
Present
Perfect : "The news has been well received, although this is
unquestionably a long term game," he said.
Simple Past : Here is Mr Paulson on
the unfolding drama:"When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started to become
unglued, and you know there were $5.4tn of securities relating to Fannie and
Freddie, $1.7tn outside of the US. The Chinese were the biggest external
investor holding Fannie and Freddie securities, so the Chinese were very, very
concerned."
Past Continous : Mr Paulson: "I was
talking to them [Chinese ministers and officials] regularly because I didn't
want them to dump the securities on the market and precipitate a bigger
crisis.”
Simple Present : He said the plan opened
a path for the government to launch its direct assistance program, which he
deemed as legitimized political bribery approaching the 2014 general election.
Simple Future : "PDI-P will
never approve the plan even if we have to lose during the voting at the House
of Representatives," Ganjar said as quoted by Kontan.co.id on Friday.
Present Continous :Ganjar said that
if the government was really serious about protecting the poor from the impact
of the subsidized fuel price hike, it should have launched a program that would
develop and strengthen the
community instead of mere direct cash assistance.
Future Perfect : Ganjar said the
government could have launched a micro-credit program that would have
stimulated labor-intensive industries within villages throughout Indonesia.
Present Continous : “We are now
running out of stock as people have been buying them since this morning,” Ani,
an employee at Karangrejo drug store in Semarang, said on Friday.
0 komentar :
Posting Komentar