{"id":74264,"date":"2024-02-20T08:13:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T08:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=74264"},"modified":"2024-02-20T08:13:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T08:13:21","slug":"barclays-seeking-to-maximise-profit-whatever-the-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2024\/02\/20\/barclays-seeking-to-maximise-profit-whatever-the-cost\/","title":{"rendered":"Barclays: seeking to maximise profit, whatever the cost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6e126a5c-a2e9-4e54-8f94-d40f6b5ec3d5?emailId=dd444146-c661-4d9b-a2f2-477e697eb48b&amp;segmentId=3d08be62-315f-7330-5bbd-af33dc531acb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the FT notes<\/a> this morning, Barclays Bank has announced a reorganization of its business as a result of which:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Barclays is ... planning to keep a tight lid on expenses, aiming for a cost to income ratio of 63 per cent this year, down from 67 per cent in 2023. By 2026 it wants the figure to fall to \u201chigh 50s in percentage terms\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Let's unpack that.<\/p>\n<p>First, they think interest rates should stay high. That's the easiest way to achieve this goal. You can be sure that the lobbying on the Bank of England is very intense as a result, at cost to us all.<\/p>\n<p>Second, they want to screw their customers - not least those with mortgages and business loans.<\/p>\n<p>And third, they will, no doubt hope to screw their staff. Expect AI to be a part of that plan.<\/p>\n<p>The aim is to make \u00a310 billion more available to shareholders over the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>Never let it be said that rentier, extractive and exploitative capitalism is dead. It's alive and kicking in the City of London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the FT notes this morning, Barclays Bank has announced a reorganization of its business as a result of which: Barclays is &#8230; planning to<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2024\/02\/20\/barclays-seeking-to-maximise-profit-whatever-the-cost\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,2,35,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banking","category-barclays","category-economics","category-ethics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74265,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74264\/revisions\/74265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}