How exposed is Barclays’ sales and trading business to harsh cuts of the kind advocated by Edward Bramson, the ‘activist investor’ who thinks that Deutsche Bank’s jettisoning of its equities business was a winning move?
If Barclays’ CEO Jes Staley leaves and Bramson eventually gets his way, the answer is clearly ‘very:’ Bramson’s recommendation that Barclays cut 24% of the risk weighted assets allocated to its sales and trading division is well known. However, Bramson’s axe wielders have some significant opposition.
The opposition comes – predictably enough – from Stephen Dainton, the former head of equities at Credit Suisse who’s been running Barclays’ markets business since June 2019. Like his predecessor, Tim Throsby, Dainton wants Barclays to compete with the big U.S. banks. And Dainton is in a strong position: his strategy seems to be succeeding.
Last week, Barclays won Euromoney’s award for the World’s Best Bank for Markets, beating not only European rivals, but…
