Barclays to slash 19,000 jobs and create bad bank - business live
Baku, May 8 (AZERTAC). Africa is an important, exciting part of the world to operate a bank in, Jenkins says.
Barclays is planning to be in the top three banks for revenue in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Botswana and Zambia by 2017, as it aims to serve a growing middle class.
Jenkins says that Barclays UK retail banking arm is in a strong position, with15 million retail customers and 800,000 small businesses.
It should benefit from the economic recovery in the UK and connected international markets.
Jenkins plans to streamline management and eliminate duplication in the supply chain.
He's explaining that his new strategy will have a 'profound' impact in the way the bank runs. His plan is to focus on areas where Barclays has a competitive advantage, sell or run down areas where it doesn't, and be more rigorous on costs.
European stock markets are all up this morning, partly driven by relief that Russia beat a "tactical retreat" over Ukraine yesterday, by calling for an independence referendum in the East of the country to be postponed.
Dovish comments by Fed chair Janet Yellen yesterday is also pushing shares up - America's central bank chief said interest rates will remain at their record lows for some considerable time yet.
In London, the FTSE 100 is up 0.5% or 33 points at 6829. It is being led by Barclays (+6.5%), and BT (+3.5%) - which reported its first jump in consumer revenues in a decade.
Over in the insurance world, Prudential has reported a 35% drop in individual annuity sales to £36m in the first quarter, which it said reflected the downturn in the market through last year as policyholders increasingly chose to defer retirement.
Four years ago, Tony Hayward was public enemy number one in America, as thousands of gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico each day, as the Deepwater Horizon disaster played out.
Hayward's response to the crisis, in which 13 people died, cost him his job at BP (he was heavily criticised for saying that he wanted his life back). But today, his rehabilitation in the City is complete - he's been appointed chairman of mining giant Glencore Xstrata.
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