Barclays to purge 7000 low-return clients

Barclays is getting ready to show 7000 trading clients the door unless they increase the business they do with the bank.

The move is part of a plan by Barclays’ investment banking arm to give better service to fewer clients, and increase profits on the way. Those that aren’t sufficiently profitable or more or less inactive will be invited to move on.

The bank has been working on the project since 2014, getting rid of 17,000 clients so far. Another 7000 will go, a near halving of the number of institutional clients it helps to trade, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Barclays has a computer system called Flight Deck that ranks every customer by the return they generate on the firm’s capital. Those that make less than a 10% return on capital are reportedly at risk.

Kashif Zafar, the co-head of global distribution and macro products, said: “We’re not in the old-school business of doing big revenue with poor returns. That’s a failing strategy.”