Coppola Comment

My latest post at Forbes looks at the implications for Barclays and for the whole financial industry of the latest in a long line of lawsuits. A few weeks ago, following  awful trading results , much of Barclays’ FICC business was consigned to the outer darkness – placed in Barclays’ internal “bad bank” for eventual sale or wind-up. Barclays’ investment bank was to be reduced to a customer service business around an equities trading core – the former Lehman Brothers equities business. But now that equities trading core has itself been dealt a major blow. The New York Attorney General has  filed a lawsuit  against Barclays for misleading clients regarding the presence and activities of HFT traders in its so-called “dark pool”, Barclays LX. Read on here . .

My latest at Forbes considers the future of investment banking in the light of cutbacks in just about all global investment banks due to regulatory pressures and changing investor preferences. Barclays is late to the party: In the wake of a  disastrous performance  in fixed income & commodities (FICC) trading,  Barclays   has announced  severe cuts  to its investment bank. 7,000 jobs are to go over the next two years, and much of the troubled FICC division is to be thrown into a  new internal “bad bank”  for eventual sale or winding up. Investment banking is to be reduced to no more than 30% of the Group’s asset base, and rather than trading, its focus is to be on client advisory services, wealth and asset management. The  Diamond days , when investment banking was Barclays’ largest and most profitable activity and its ambition was to be among the premier global investment banks, seem to be well and truly over.... Read on here .

At Forbes, I explain how regulatory changes and a difficult trading environment have forced Barclays to consign half of its investment bank to the scrap heap. What is left looks very familiar, though.....