CHICAGO -Cuts in Barclays' investment banking units claimed at least 10 municipal professionals in the firm's top-10 ranked municipal bond broker-dealer unit, according to numerous sources.
The bank's overall reductions are part of a larger restructuring aimed at reducing expenses, according to published reports.
The recent cuts in municipals spanned sectors and included public finance banking and various desks within the department. They hit both junior professionals and long-time veterans that came to Barclays as part of its acquisition of bankrupt Lehman Brothers' municipal department.
Senior level cuts included Peter Coleman, a managing director, Kenneth Gambone, a director, and Donald McFadyen, a director.
A Barclays spokesman declined to comment on the number of layoffs in the municipal group or provide names of the individuals.
Coleman is a 30-year veteran who came from Lehman and remained with Barclays when it took over Lehman's broker-dealer operations in the wake of that firm's 2008 collapse. Coleman had served as a head of municipal trading.
Gambone started at the former Lehman in 1995 as a short-term products trader. More recently, he worked on municipal taxable and tax-exempt short-term product originations for all municipal sectors, according to his biography listed as part of a conference sponsored by The Bond Buyer last September.
McFadyen left as director of finance of New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to join the former Lehman public finance banking group in 1999. Barclays was named to serve only as a co-manager on MTA bond sales over the next three years on the state-approved list of underwriters announced last year.
The British bank entered the municipal market in September 2008 when it acquired Lehman's 160-person muni bond team as part of its purchase of the defunct firm's broker-dealer assets following its collapse and bankruptcy filing.
Barclays ranked seventh last year as a senior manager on negotiated municipal bond sales, credited with leading 105 deals valued at $12.7 billion, and was eighth overall last year among senior managers on combined negotiated and competitive sales, credited with 121 deals totaling more than $13.9 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Citing sources, various national publications and wire services late last month reported that Barclays would eliminate as many as 400 investment banking jobs to trim costs as part of an ongoing restructuring.
Barclays last year announced its intention then to trim 3,700 jobs across business lines, including 1,800 in its corporate and investment banking businesses. The firm will announce its year end results on Feb. 11.
Barclays' municipal reductions -- which sources said were handed down late last month-- come amid speculation that layoffs this year at broker-dealers could be wide spread amid a dearth of deals to underwrite.
Dealers expect 2014 to be the second-worst year for municipal issuance in a decade, and some predict the lowest volume since 2000, as the Federal Reserve's tapering program pushes interest rates higher.
Gross new issue volume this year was predicted to be $296 billion, down 10% from $330 billion in 2013, according to the median estimate of seven leading municipal bond underwriters. That would rival 2011's volume of $287 billion for the lowest yearly issuance since 2002. A decline in bond refundings will be the main culprit due to rising rates making refinancing savings unattainable, market analysts said.
