It's Friday morning in India, and the day brought black news for 450 employees of England's Barclay's Bank. The layoffs are the fourth and largest in a series of four cuts made since December 2008, and represent approximately a tenth of the Barclay's workforce left in India, leaving only about 5,000 employees. This time around, the cuts affected mid-senior level executives, some department managers, the global retail division, commercial banking division, and Barclay's Finance. Laid-off employees will receive severance pay equivalent to about three months of wages. Management has said that this could well be the last round of cuts in India in the foreseeable future, and that some hires will likely be made in specialized functions to reflect the banks new emphasis on corporate and investment banking.
See "Barclays fires 450 employees, a tenth of workforce in India", Mahima Puri, The Economic Times, April 28, 2010