Barclays Capital announced last week it will lay off 400 employees globally. While the bank said it is mostly to affect back-office operations and no front-line investment bankers will lose their jobs, the move raised questions out here in Asia, where the bank has continually positioned itself as trying to grow its business.
“We are building on our existing platform of equity-linked products and derivatives we are seeking to build an equity capital markets platform focused on very high-quality execution and high-intellectual value research,” said Andrew Jones, the bank's co-head of global finance and risk solutions for Asia Pacific.
Last week the firm brought...