The fixed income business at Barclays, traditionally the driver of the bank's profits, has been tipped to bear the brunt of hundreds of redundancies in its investment banking unit, with news of the job losses coming just a week before bonuses are due to be announced.

Barclays is set to shed in the region of 300 to 400 jobs in its investment bank, according to a person familiar with the situation, with many of those cuts expected to come at managing director level. The bank has not revealed which business lines and geographies within the investment bank will be most impacted, though it is understood the Asian business will sidestep the worst of the cuts.