Some of Barclays’ biggest investors have urged Antony Jenkins, the bank’s new chief executive, to take an axe to its investment bank.
At meetings with investors in recent weeks, at least three of the 30 biggest shareholders told Mr Jenkins and other executives that the UK bank should consider following the example of Switzerland’s UBS, which last month unveiled a dramatic retreat from the fixed-income side of its investment bank business and 30,000 job cuts.
“The 20 per cent pop in the UBS share price has got investors’ juices flowing,” said one bank insider, suggesting that the idea of closing Barclays’ equities business or spinning off the whole investment bank was gathering investor support.