Barclays plans panel cull

Only the external legal advisers on the bank's corporate recovery panel - cut from 13 firms to five last year - will not be scrutinised.

The bank's main panel - The Matrix - consists of 11 firms, understood to include Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May, Freshfields, Lovells, Dibb Lupton Alsop, Pinsent Curtis and Eversheds.

Barclays also instructs Herbert Smith, Nabarro Nathanson, Macfarlanes, Simmons & Simmons, Edge Ellison, Garretts, Hammond Suddards, Plymouth-based Bond Pearce, Birmingham firm Gateley Wareing and Scottish firm Shepherd & Wedderburn WS.

All the above firms will be included in the review, but only members of The Matrix have been contacted at this stage. The restructuring will be carried out this summer