4 Financial Stock Stories To Be Taken to the Bank

Barclays (NYSE:BCS): Current price $19.09

The company’s Chief Executive Antony Jenkins has informed investors at a recent shareholder meeting that cost reduction is his absolute priority and he is endeavoring to find a way for the bank to operate with as few as 100,000 staff, which would represent an almost 30 per cent reduction to its present headcount. This comment will boost speculation that Barclays is readying a series of massive job cuts, potentially aiming at the highly compensated investment bankers, but inside sources believe that the reference to job reductions was not a goal, but rather a hope for the next 10 years. An attendee at the meeting said that Jenkins remarked that a bank’s “only competitive advantage is going to be lower costs. He said the only question is: ‘How can you eventually turn this bank into one that can operate with 100,000 staff instead of 140,000?’”

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