Barclays Bank is pulling out of Europe big-time. This means all Portugal’s 147 branches – employing a total of 1,600 people – will either be sold off or simply closed down.
The news – which had been in the air since the Bank was fined a whopping 290 million pounds last year for its role in trying to manipulate international interest rates – has united unions, who are now trying to ensure employees are not thrown unceremoniously onto the scrapheap.
“Barclays made a lot of money in Portugal,” Rui Riso, president of Febase (the federation of the financial sector”) told Público.
Thus, the hope is that Barclay’s Portuguese operations will be “bought by another bank so that workers can be integrated” into it.
Febase will be “making every effort to see that this happens,” said Riso. If not, the federation will “submit the case to the Bank of Portugal” so that “it takes care of the situation”.
Febase has already been in touch with UNI Global Union, an international platform of syndicates, to try and organise a meeting in London with Barclays administrative chiefs
Meantime, Barclays boss Anthony Jenkins – the trouble-shooter drafted in last year after former chief executive Bob Diamond left in disgrace – announced that his shakeup of the empire will affect as many as 9,000 jobs in UK, as well.
The “restructuring plan” will see a “bold simplification of Barclays” which will still maintain some international operations – albeit only in “areas where we have capability and competitive advantage”.
Portugal, sadly, is not one of these. The country’s operations are to be bundled up in a “bad bank” which will also see the high street branches in Spain, Italy and France falling on their swords.
In his statement, Jenkins explains that as a result of the cuts, the bank expects to incur an additional 800 million pounds in restructuring charges. This is in addition to the 2.7 billion pounds that he has already announced it will cost to turn Barclay’s damaged empire around.
Barclays’ Portuguese operation had been scaling back since last year when around 100 branches closed their doors.
Intriguingly, despite the news, the financial institution’s shares have remained buoyant and continue to be worth more than 5%, reports Público.
