Barclays - The Bad Bank

Barclays has increased its redundancy target this year to over 14,000, with 7,000 set to go from Barclays Capital (the current headcount of Barclays Capital numbers 26,000).

The redundancies are aimed at cutting costs and, more importantly, reducing the proportion of risk assets used by the investment bank.

A "bad bank" (non core division) will be set up to handle the process of shrinking the bank and £115BN of risk assets.

Barclays Cuts 12,000 Jobs

Barclays is to cut 12,000 jobs from its 140,000 global headcount. The UK will bear the brunt of the cuts, with 7,000 expected to lose their jobs.

RBS Sacks 1,400 Staff

The newswires are reporting that RBS has told staff that 1,400 of them will lose their jobs over the coming two years.

ECB To Recruit 800 More Staff

The many millions of people in the Eurozone who have been made redundant because of the policies of the ECB need fear for their futures no more, the ECB is planning to recruit more staff.

Unfortunately the ECB will only be recruiting 800 more staff, paid for out of the pockets of the hapless European taxpayers.

For why does the ECB need to increase its headcount?

In December EU finance ministers agreed to make the ECB chief supervisor for banks in the Eurozone, the deadline for full implementation of the supervisory role being March 2014, thus the ECB believes that it needs extra staff in order to fulfill its new role.

The new supervisory powers of the ECB are one further step towards full monetary union. Those who are recruited would be advised to be aware that, despite the hubris of the politicians and technocrats, the Euro experiment will end in tears, as such their roles cannot be seen as anything more than temporary.

Project Transform - Barclays Faces An Uphill Struggle

Barclays has announced that it will cut 3,700 jobs (1,800 of them in its investment banking division) and £1.7BN of costs, as part of Project Transform which is designed to restore confidence in both its finances and its tattered reputation.

As Barclays fully realises a good brand and reputation takes years to build but days to destroy, the uphill struggle to restore confidence will take many years.

HMV Collapse

Now that HMV has gone the way of Jessops and placed itself in administration, aside from the worries faced by the staff of HMV those with gift vouchers will also be worried.

As of today HMV have stopped accepting HMV gift vouchers. Whilst the administrators may choose to accept them at some stage in the future, there is no guarantee that they will. Additionally, if any part of the chain is sold to a third party the new owner is under no legal obligation to accept the gift vouchers.

Which? recommend that those holding gift vouchers in failed chains such as Jessops and HMV write to the administrators to ask for a refund (a process that offers no guarantees and may well take at least 12 months). Which? have a helpful Q&A section wrt failed retailers, which also has a link to a template for a letter asking for a refund of gift vouchers held.

Ironically, not everyone has done so badly out of the failure of HMV. A number of companies/individuals heavily shorted HMV in the days running up to its demise in the hope of making a killing out of its failure.

UBS Redundancies Smokescreen

Whilst UBS is enveloped by the smokescreen of publicity derived from its mass culling (and handling of that mass culling) of staff today, it seems to have been a "good" day for it to also let the world know that it is under investigation in Singapore, along with other banks, for possible manipulation of Libor and other benchmark rates.

As per Reuters:

"These investigations focus on whether there were improper attempts by UBS (among others), either acting on our own or together with others, to manipulate LIBOR and other benchmark rates at certain times."

 

UBS - U've Been Sacked

UBS may well regret how it has handled informing its staff about their redundancies today.

The FT reports that UBS was one of the most popular trends on twitter, as the blogosphere flooded with comments describing the shock and resentment of staff.

According to the PR bullshit being spouted by UBS the redundancies are a ‘strategic acceleration from position of strength.’

Who hires these people, and why are they still in their jobs?

UBS Redundancies Update

Ralph Sinclair has tweeted the follwoing:

"From inside 100 Liverpool Street: "Whole desks are gone and there are people stood outside without access to the building."

UBS Redundancies

It seems that UBS is making some people redundant today and over the next three years (10,000 in total).

Sadly, as per Owen Callan, UBS is using the "old school" method of informing them.

People arrive at work, if their passes don't work they are ushered into a special room where they are told that they are on special leave.

£1M Payoff

Tony Hayward, the outgoing CEO of BP, has negotiated a £1M payoff and a £10M pension pot.

As a result of the oil spill BP reported in its Q2 results a provision for $32.2BN and a loss of $17BN, the largest loss in British corporate history.

Quite why BP's all but invisible chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, who described the residents of the Gulf Coast as "small people" remains in situ is a mystery.

Unite Tries To Hold Back The Tide

Unite, the union that represents Cadbury employees, is rightly worried that the proposed leveraged takeover of Cadbury by Kraft may lead to job losses in the UK.

Aside from organising a rather futile employee protest in Bournville, the home of Cadbury, today the union says that Kraft must give assurances that the interests of the workforce will not be swept aside in the deal, and that the quality of the products will be safeguarded.

Or what?

What exactly will Unite do, or be able to do, if Kraft doesn't give these assurances?

It is powerless to stop this, and its "demands" as empty and as meaningless as Gordon Brown's promise last week to do everything possible to protect Cadbury jobs.

At best, all that will happen will be that Kraft issue some form of nicely worded soothing message that will not be worth the paper it is printed on.

The only way to stop this is if the shareholders vote it down, which they won't do. As I noted last week, hedge funds snapped up a large number of shares in Cadbury in Q4 2009 when news of the possible takeover came out. They have no loyalty to either the company or the workforce.

Cadbury Kowtow To Kraft

The board of Cadbury have accepted Kraft's 840p offer.

Cadbury chairman, Roger Carr, is quoted on Citywire:

"We believe the offer represents good value for Cadbury shareholders and are pleased with the commitment that Kraft Foods has made to our heritage, values and people throughout the world."

Doubtless the board would not have given in if they did not believe that they had the support of key shareholders. It should be noted that, when details of an initial offer were made public in September, hedge funds were more than keen to snap up shares in Cadbury.

However, whether all the shareholders are as happy with the deal remains to be seen.

The board were also advised by the banks that they would not achieve a better deal. It should also be noted that, on the assumption that the deal goes ahead, the banking advisers to Cadbury and Kraft will reap a windfall of £150M.

However, the support of the workforce is not guaranteed, given what Kraft's plans may actually be for the future of Cadbury.

Gordon Brown, fearful of his re-election prospects, made a grab for the headlines by saying:

"We are determined that the levels of investment that take place in Cadbury in the United Kingdom are maintained and we are determined that, at a time when people are worried about their jobs, that jobs in Cadbury can be secure."

All very nice and voter friendly, but there is nothing that he can do to stop Kraft doing whatever they wish with the company once they take ownership of it.

The Yorkshire Chelsea Merger

Those members of Chelsea and Yorkshire building societies (due to merge by next April) who had hoped that they may received a windfall, should keep their champagne on ice for another day.

There will be no windfall for members, but there will be job losses for the 3,200 staff working at the 178 branches.

The merged behemoth, to be named Yorkshire Building Society, will have combined assets of £35BN, and 2.7M members.

In reality this is not a merger but a takeover of Chelsea, which has lost £44M from the Icelandic banking scandal and £41M due to buy to let mortgage fraud.

Given the "in vogue" political hysteria against banking behemoths, it is surprising that this deal is going ahead and is being trumpeted so vocally.

Perhaps, in this instance, the politicians and regulators are relieved that another "Northern Wreck" has been deftly avoided?

Lloyds Job Cuts

Lloyds Bank, the 43% taxpayer rescued wreck of a once proud bank, has announced that it will cut a further 5,000 jobs by the end of next year.

Lloyds, at the behest of Gordon Brown, rescued HBOS last year at the height of the banking crisis; it now faces having to "eliminate" a total of 12,500 jobs from a total of 129,000 staff employed in Britain.

Meanwhile HSBC and Barclays both issued positive trading statements, in which they claimed the rise in bad debts has peaked and profits are sustainable.

Postman Prat

It seems likely that there will be a post strike on or after 22 October.

Whether or not one occurs, the damage to Royal Mail's brand and the long term job prospects of those who claim to be striking for an "improved" postal service has already been done.

Royal Mail customers are already seeking alternatives to the increasingly erratic service, and will never return to the Royal Mail.

Mail volumes are already falling at around 10% a year.

Business Post says it anticipates a 10% rise, while Parcel2Go says a strike will lead to a 20% increase in turnover.

The strikers will soon be looking for alternative employment. They have not seemingly understood the precariousness of their situation.

Postal Strike

It looks likely that we are going to be lumbered with a post strike this Christmas.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) claims that it is confident that its 120,000 members voting on the ballot will support industrial action, the results are expected at 12:30 today.

Billy Hayes, the CWU's general secretary, said that workers had little choice.

Nonsense!

No one is forcing them to go on strike.

As I have noted before, there are many alternatives to the Royal Mail. This action will result in future job losses for those who strike, as they push the Royal Mail into oblivion.

Shrinkage Less Than Expected

Britain's economy shrank by 0.7% in Q2 2009, confounding the "experts" who had predicted a shrinkage of 0.8%.

However, whatever the "experts" feel about this, the reality for those who are unemployed/due to become unemployed is that the recovery is still a very long way off.

Lloyds Axes Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G)

Lloyds Banking Group is to close all 164 of its Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) branches in the UK, with the loss of up to 1,500 jobs.

This follows the disastrous merger earlier this year, set up by Gordon Brown, with HBOS.

There is one glimmer of "good" news, Andy Hornby (the ex CEO of HBOS who destroyed value at HBOS) has found work with Alliance Boots as their CEO (earning around £1M per annum).

I wonder if the soon to be ex employees of C&G will be equally fortunate?

The PPI Rip Off

The financial services industry doesn't seem to yet get the point that its reputation is in tatters; not just because of the recession brought about by the greed and stupidity of the banks, but because of a number of issues over the years that impugn its integrity and honesty eg endowment misselling, payment protection insurance (PPI), bank charges, debt collection, credit agreements etc.

Not content with having already severely tarnished its reputation wrt PPI, the insurance industry is seeking to further gouge its own self inflicted wounds by increasing the cost of PPI policies and reducing the actual cover provided.

The Times reports that millions are facing a 50% rise in the cost of PPI cover. Indeed the cost of some PPI policies has already increased by 170% over the last year. The Post Office has written to its PPI customers warning them that it plans to cut the maximum payment in the event of redundancy, and double the cost of some premiums.

Those who clamour for greater regulation of the financial services industry should remain calm, the addiction of those in the industry to destroying their own reputations will ensure that there will be very little remaining of the UK's financial services industry to regulate in ten years time.

By then people will have finally woken up to the fact that they have been ripped off on a continual basis, and will simply resort to putting their money under their mattresses as their grandparents used to do.

The financial services industry will be the author of its own downfall.