US bond fund managers have started work on a plan to re-open the mortgage securities market, Bloomberg reports. At its peak, the US residential mortgage-backed securities market had US$1.2 trillion on issue but since the financial crisis the market has been frozen. At the urging of the US Treasury, bond fund managers have issued a set of "key principles" designed to add transparency and better oversight to the market. The main initiative is for an independent entity to act as a "deal agent", with oversight of all parties involved in a transaction. Barclays has reported a drop in full-year profits, a dividends cut in 2016 and 2017 and a serious restructuring. The BBC reports that Barclays aims to split into two, main core divisions - Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate and International. Underlying annual profits for 2015 fell two per cent to £5.4 billion with past bad behaviour requiring a further provision of £1.45 billion for mis-selling payment protection insurance. The most eye-catching announcement from new CEO Jes Staley, though, was that Barclays will slim down its 62.3 per cent stake in its Africa business over the next two to three years.