Ever since Anthony Jenkins was made CEO he has been promising to shake things up at Barclays. But the news so far suggests he has just sort of put his finger out and wobbled it a bit.

The plan, announced today, is to cut £2bn off Barclays' cost base - which is about 10 per cent. This is not such shocking news: it's pretty similar to what other banks like Deutsche and Credit Suisse are doing. Compare and contrast with UBS's massive restructuring back in October (10,000 jobs gone to Barclays' 3,700, huge cuts to the investment banking side). UBS saw a huge rise in share price that day: unlikely to happen for Barclays today.

The cuts were never going to be that drastic, though - Jenkins is trying to balance government and regulator demands with his promise to deliver a return on equity ahead of the cost of equity: a difficult trick to pull off.

Rather like its new "balanced" mantra, then ("respect/integrity/service/excellence/stewardship"..... ergh... but wait! it spells "RISES"), Barclays' restructuring will be mainly symbolic.

So where, exactly, will the cuts be? Early reports suggest that investment banking will be cut in Continental Europe and Asia, along with equities and M&A and structured capital markets. A few cuts to the most contentious areas, and the public can be appeased at minimal cost to  shareholders.

Unsurprisingly, Barclays employees see his approach differently, according to this efinancial careers report, which came out ahead of today's news:

“It’s farcical,” said one Barclays fixed income professional in London who declined to be named. “He’s a retail banker. He doesn’t understand the investment bank and is being run by the government and the regulator. He’s also very bearish, which is no good for morale.”

“We’re leery of his commercial banking pedigree,” one Barclays investment banker in New York told us, also speaking off the record.

The real litmus test for Jenkins will come when the markets react to the news. More to follow...