Barc at the moon

[uk contractor]

Barclays Capital Back Office is huge in Canary Wharf at least 8-9,000 staff. I am not surprised they are outsourcing some of this as it does not need to be in Canary Wharf with the attached salaries, over time, pensions etc etc

They need to keep some back office staff for the traders who need face to face contact but most of it could go somewhere else outside London there is just no need to keep the North + South Colonnade buildings as well as the Barclays Global HQ building. Those runnings costs must be massive. If they kept South Colonnade with all the Traders & Quants they could move over the few Back Office staff they need then close the North Colonnade.

More & more banks are outsourcing their back office functions outside UK to save a lot of money.

[LondonManc]

Barclays Capital Back Office is huge in Canary Wharf at least 8-9,000 staff. I am not surprised they are outsourcing some of this as it does not need to be in Canary Wharf with the attached salaries, over time, pensions etc etc

They need to keep some back office staff for the traders who need face to face contact but most of it could go somewhere else outside London there is just no need to keep the North + South Colonnade buildings as well as the Barclays Global HQ building. Those runnings costs must be massive. If they kept South Colonnade with all the Traders & Quants they could move over the few Back Office staff they need then close the North Colonnade.

More & more banks are outsourcing their back office functions outside UK to save a lot of money.

Global HQ is more retail and WM than IB.

Take your point though, could move more up north. If there's talk from Gideon about this northern powerhouse and HS2 pushing on, then perhaps there should be incentives for banks to onshore up north rather than offshore.

[ELBBUBKUNPS]

Canary Wharf sucks ... I hate it.

[uk contractor]

Global HQ is more retail and WM than IB.

Take your point though, could move more up north. If there's talk from Gideon about this northern powerhouse and HS2 pushing on, then perhaps there should be incentives for banks to onshore up north rather than offshore.

Global HQ building is a white elephant they have a few traders (treasury mainly) who need to be in London the rest are as you say retail & 99% could move outside London to save a huge amount of money. Not even sure the HQ is fully occupied with Barclays staff either!

[oliverson]

Global HQ building is a white elephant they have a few traders (treasury mainly) who need to be in London the rest are as you say retail & 99% could move outside London to save a huge amount of money. Not even sure the HQ is fully occupied with Barclays staff either!

You mean a bit like Morgan Stanley who have set up shop in Glasgow but can't find people with a decent technical level up there and have consequently, so I understand, just not renewed a bunch of .NET developers. Sure, it looks good on paper. Let's stop paying £ 650 for these WPF developers in London and pay £ 450 in Glasgow. Spreadsheet says yes. Reality is nobody of any decent technical level wants to be working in a backwater like that. Whole thing grinds to a halt. It will be the same for Barclays in the North (and I'm a northerner so I should know).

[ShandyDrinker]

You mean a bit like Morgan Stanley who have set up shop in Glasgow but can't find people with a decent technical level up there and have consequently, so I understand, just not renewed a bunch of .NET developers. Sure, it looks good on paper. Let's stop paying £ 650 for these WPF developers in London and pay £ 450 in Glasgow. Spreadsheet says yes. Reality is nobody of any decent technical level wants to be working in a backwater like that. Whole thing grinds to a halt. It will be the same for Barclays in the North (and I'm a northerner so I should know).

I had wondered how places like Morgan Stanley (I thought there were others too) were doing in Glasgow. I would imagine you just can't get the volume of people wanting to work there that you could in London. I think JPM (and others) did the same with Bournemouth. As I said to my MP about the potential T&S - if you get rid of that, you can forget attracting people to work anywhere outside of main hubs such as London. If what you're saying is right, they're struggling to attract the right people even without the political shenanigans currently taking place.

The funny thing is, over time if organisations stuck with a location such as Glasgow and trained people up (more so for permies), they would probably eventually reach a critical mass and have good quality people. Unfortunately it's often about taking a short term view.

[MrMarkyMark]

I had wondered how places like Morgan Stanley (I thought there were others too) were doing in Glasgow. I would imagine you just can't get the volume of people wanting to work there that you could in London. I think JPM (and others) did the same with Bournemouth. As I said to my MP about the potential T&S - if you get rid of that, you can forget attracting people to work anywhere outside of main hubs such as London. If what you're saying is right, they're struggling to attract the right people even without the political shenanigans currently taking place.

The funny thing is, over time if organisations stuck with a location such as Glasgow and trained people up (more so for permies), they would probably eventually reach a critical mass and have good quality people. Unfortunately it's often about taking a short term view.

Good posts guys...

That's why I was always saying they will be hard pushed to get rid of T&S completely, unless they want technical "ghettos".
Agreed it may work if a longer term view was taken.

I believe they also may have had more luck in say Manchester, rather than Bournemouth / Glasgow.

[Chuck]

Over a number of different contracts, I've worked for Chase (as it was then) in Bournemouth, and JPM in London and Glasgow.

Both outposts were staffed by highly competent people who were choosing a different lifestyle to the City. 9-5 is the norm. They want to stay close or go back to home/family. Yes, rates are lower, and getting new staff is harder. But it's not impossible.

There are a lot of companies setting up in Glasgow so competition for people will grow and rates will have to rise.

FWIW, Glasgow is a great city. I was fearing for my life as a Southern Englishman. I couldn't have been more wrong. Mostly great people who know how to enjoy themselves. I'd rather go there than any northern English tuliphole of a city any day.

[uk contractor]

Morgan Stanley has always been like that I had the misfortune of being on the wrong side of one of their money saving exercise's many years ago! Most of the US banking giants cut temp staff on a regular basis then rehire as & when.

[Cirrus]

Glasgow Rainy Season: January to December

I left Glasgow to work in London.

I remember coming coming out of Convent Garden tube station with my cap firmly on and suddenly it hit me! It hadn't rained for several days.

(You have to wear a cap in Glasgow. An umbrella would be blown away in seconds).

Glasgow: twinned with Islamabad