Barclays is cutting about 2,100 jobs worldwide in investment banking and money management as it slashes costs to cope with the fall-out from the credit crisis.

The company, which swallowed up the US operations of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers last year and some of its European staff, declined to reveal where the job cuts would come but the axe is expected to fall heavily in London and New York. The bank will continue to hire in areas such as equities.

The company is cutting 1,300 people from Barclays Capital, the debt-focused investment banking business, 500 from the Barclays Wealth private banking arm, and 330 in Barclays Global Investors, an asset-management business. Overall, the cuts amount to 7 per cent of the three divisions’ staff.

Financial Times, The Times, Daily Telegraph