CS Venkatakrishnan has been at the helm of Barclays since late 2021. Photo: Barclays
Venkat is expected to formally announce his shake-up. in February, which will focus on cutting costs and increasing shareholder value.
Ditching less profitable clients could be a quick way to free up money for the lender.
Banks must set aside money as a safety buffer for investment bank clients, so cutting ties with some less profitable clients will free up cash that Barclays can spend elsewhere.
It is reported that downsizing clients could free up up to £20bn of assets to allocate elsewhere.
Its £21bn valuation is much lower than rivals such as HSBC, which is valued at 116 billion pounds sterling. It is also overshadowed by the big Wall Street banks.
The plan to cut costs at the investment bank comes after it emerged last week that the lender was looking to cut back-office jobs in its human resources, legal services and compliance departments. save money.
There are up to 2,000 vacancies allocated for this operation.
Barclays currently employs around 87,000 people worldwide, of which 44,000 are in the UK.
Venkat was forced to take action earlier this year after dismal results caused its share price to fall again.
Barclays' investment banking division competes with the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, offering a full range of services such as mergers and acquisitions and equity trading to large corporate clients.
Unlike HSBC, its exposure to fast-growing Asian markets is minimal.
The investment bank has previously been the focus of radical turnaround plans, with activist investor Ed Bramson unsuccessfully trying to force the bank to spin off parts of the unit several years ago.
>Barclays declined to comment.
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