BANKING giant Barclays said yesterday it planned to cut 2,100 jobs at its retail and commercial banking business.

The move comes less than 24 hours after it confirmed proposals to cut a similar number of posts at its investment banking businesses: Barclays Capital, and Barclays Global Investors. The latest cuts, which could affect staff in high street branches, bring the total number of job losses announced this week to more than 4,000.

The bank is in consultation with trade union Unite over the job losses.

A spokesman said: “Barclays continually reviews its operations and resources so that they function efficiently as business needs and customer requirements evolve.

“In the current market conditions, this is particularly important.”

The firm will take “all possible measures” to reduce compulsory lay-offs, including natural attrition, releasing contractors, closing vacancies and calling for voluntary redundancies.

At the end of 2008, Barclays employed more than 156,000 people worldwide, with 69,000 based in the UK.

Elsewhere in the banking sector, there were reports that the merger of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America could result in as many as 2,000 UK redundancies.