The bank said the job cuts were designed to eliminate obsolete or duplicated roles and affected 158 permanent IT staff and 250 contractors based mostly in London and Cheshire, northwest England.

Barclays said it would try to limit the number of compulsory layoffs by releasing contractors, closing vacancies and offering workers the chance to apply for other jobs.

Barclays, Britain's third-largest bank by market capitalisation, employs 150,000 people worldwide, 63,000 of them in Britain.

Barclays declined to participate in the British government's bank recapitalization plan, which was taken up by rivals Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Lloyds TSB Group PLC and HBOS PLC. Those banks all agreed to cede major stakes to the government in return for a combined 37 billion pound (S$80.9 billion) cash injection from the Treasury.

Barclays' management agreed to take investments from the Middle East instead.

The bank's shares rose 4.3 per cent to 170.3 pence on Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange. -- AP