By Kirsten Hastings From International Adviser

The British bank took the decision to reduce its presence in Gibraltar following a strategic review in 2014, having had a presence on the Rock for around 125 years.

A small local staff of 14 permanent and two contract workers, who have been running a small operation focused on large companies and high net worth clients, will lose their jobs, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

The majority of Barclays’ clients in Gibraltar have bank accounts based in London and Jersey and will continue to receive banking services, the bank said.

“The only change is that the relationship point will now come from a team based in London, operating on a ‘fly in’ basis as required,” said Theo Leonard, the bank’s vice president for government relations.

Staff let down

The Gibraltar government strongly criticised the move, saying that the bank had let down the remaining staff members and their families “after many of them will have decided or been forced to stay with the bank at the time of its withdrawal from the retail banking sector in Gibraltar”.

The government emphasised that the decision by Barclays was “clearly not driven by any aspect of Gibraltar as a jurisdiction but is part of what is described as a plan to concentrate on US and UK business”.

Consolidate and focus

A month after assuming his new role, chief executive Jes Staley advised in January that Barclays was accelerating its investment bank strategy outlined in 2014.

In early April, Barclays wealth and investment management (WIM) businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong was sold to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp for around $320m (£226.5m, €281.2m).

In January, Barclays WIM sold a majority share in its Jersey-based trust and fiduciary business, rebranded Zedra, to an independent investor group. The company also announced that its investment banking arm would close offices in nine countries across Asia, the Americas, and EMEA.

Barclays Bank announced in March 2016 that it intends to sell its 62.3% stake in its African business, Barclays Africa Group Ltd (BAGL) over the next two to three years.

It was reported in February 2016 that Barclays had emerged as a potential buyer of TD Direct Investing, one of the largest retail stockbroking businesses in the UK, in a move that could create a challenger to current market leader Hargreaves Lansdown. 

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