Britain's leading financial services giant Barclays is planning to move hundreds of back-office jobs to India as part of cost-cutting measures.

With around 2,000 jobs on the line at its troubled investment banking unit here, Barclays is believed to have dispatched a team to recruit and train new staff in India to replace workers in both London and New York, according to The Independent.

It had sent out emails to staff at its investment bank consulting on the planned job cuts earlier this week.

Barclays employs around 9,000 people at its investment banking division in the UK.
It has not confirmed the exact number of jobs at risk but said that more details will be revealed next month.

Those affected will be largely linked to back-office and support functions.

News of further offshoring and job losses could generate fresh controversy, particularly among workers' unions, given that the roles slated to move to India will be primarily relatively modestly paid ones, the newspaper report said.

"As part of our ongoing location strategy, we have been and will continue to move roles from one international location to another.

"This strategy will deliver improvements in our processes for the ultimate benefit of our clients," a Barclays spokesman said.

Barclays is reviewing its operations in the light of recent scandals over the alleged fixing of inter-bank lending rate (Libor rates) and mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI) in the UK.

In July, the bank was fined 290 million pounds by the US and UK regulators for attempting to manipulate the Libor rate.

The bank's boss, Antony Jenkins, said last September that he would be quick and bold in making reforms at the bank and has been taking some tough measures.

Last week, he told the bank's 140,000 employees to sign up to a new code of conduct, or leave.