The UK bank warned of further cost cuts ahead, which could include reducing office space.
Barclays, which has about 55,000 of its 85,000 global staff working from home, said it had been using bank branches to house call centre staff, who would usually be in large offices.
Barclays’ finance director, Tushar Morzaria, said: “We’ve learned a lot through the Covid pandemic … We have some very large offices in different parts of the country that, you know, we’re not sure how they’ll be utilised prospectively. We haven’t made any decisions on this – I think these are very long-term issues, and we want to be thoughtful and deliberate.”
The chief executive, Jes Staley, did not rule out branch closures but said the decision would be driven by use, with more customers turning to digital banking. “We are not making any branch decisions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. We’re continuing the process of rationalising our physical footprint based on what our customers want.”
