Hundreds of jobs to go as Barclays scales back in Asia, reports say

Hong Kong (dpa) - Barclays Bank is set to cut hundreds of staff and exit from at least two countries in the Asia Pacific region, reports said Thursday.Some 230 of about 1,000 posts in total will be cut in Asia as the British bank makes an exit from countries including Australia, Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia, financial newswire Bloomberg said, citing "people with knowledge of the matter."The Wall Street Journal said the bank was only pulling out of Taiwan and South Korea and that at least 250 jobs would go, citing unnamed sources and a letter sent out to clients.Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley, a former JP Morgan Chase & Co. banker, is looking to streamline the bank‘s operations, focusing on the bank‘s most profitable businesses, Bloomberg said.An internal memo announced the bank is closing all its cash equity research, sales and trading as well as its convertible bond-trading businesses across Asia. Barclays‘s equity-research team will stop covering stocks listed in Asia immediately, reported Bloomberg.Standard Chartered and the Royal Bank of Scotland have also made cuts in Asia.