Barclays Bank

Barclays is a UK-based financial services group, with a very large international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. It is engaged primarily in banking, investment banking and investment management. In terms of market capitalisation Barclays is one of the top ten largest banks in the world.

Barclays has been involved in banking for over 300 years and operates in over 60 countries with more than 78,400 permanent employees. For the full-year ended December 31st 2004, the group achieved a pre-tax profit of £4,603 million up 20 per cent on 2003. Barclays paid £1,289 million in taxes in 2004.

Its main operations are:

UK Banking –

Provides solutions to Barclays UK retail and business banking customers. Customers are served through a variety of channels comprising: the branch network, cash machines, telephone banking, online banking and relationship managers. It is managed through two business areas, UK Retail Banking and UK Business Banking.

In UK Retail Banking there are 14 million retail customers, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, and general insurance. Small business provides banking servcies to 566,000 customers, UK Premier provides banking, investment products and advice to 273,000 affluent customers.
UK Business Banking provides relationship banking to larger and medium-sized businesses. Nearly 180,000 customers are served by a network of relationship and industry sector specialist managers.

Private Clients –

Serves affluent, high net worth and corporate clients, primarily in the UK and continental Europe, providing private banking, offshore banking, stockbroking, financial planning and asset management services.

Businesses include:

· Barclays Stockbrokers - the the largest retail stockbroker in the UK with over 7,500 deals undertaken each day.

· Barclays Private Bank - offering a full service private bank to high net worth clients in the UK and abroad.

Gerrard - one of the most famous names in investment management, providing advisory and discretionary portfolio management for individuals and institutions.

Barclays Financial Planning - provides regulated advice on life, pensions and investment products. It is one of the top five IFAs in the UK, and the fourth largest financial adviser and fifth largest bancassurer.

International Banking - providing offshore banking services for individuals and corporates.

International Retail and Commercial Banking –

Provides a range of banking services, including current accounts, savings, investments, mortgages and loans, as well as services to corporate customers across Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Africa and the Middle East. It is also responsible for Barclays stake in FirstCaribbean International Bank. Barclays operates over 800 international branches.

Other businesses are Barclays Capital, Barclaycard and Barclays Global Investors which have their own sections below. The Woolwich, part of UK banking is also profiled.

Head Office and Registered Office
54 Lombard Street,
London
EC3P 3AH
Telephone: ()

Articles by Barclays Bank:

Barclays Bank Credit Cards Barclaycard We’ve made some big changes at Barclaycard recently and the latest is our offer on purchases — 0% interest for three whole months after you open your account. (Typical standard purchase rate 15.9% APR variable)

Barclays Bank E-Payment Solutions Online Solutions Tackle Offline Problems In the last few years, vast amounts of resources have been devoted by all types of organisations to the development of effective systems that allow payment transactions to take place online - e Payment gateways. Not least of these is Local Government for whom a 2005 deadline and obligation to deliver 'Best value' serves as a powerful motivator.

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