Barclays plc is a global British financial services firm operating in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Latin America, Australia, Asia and Africa. It is a holding company that is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges, and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange until 2008. It is also a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Barclays PLC is ranked as the 25th largest company in the world by Forbes Global 2000 (2008 list) and the fourth largest financial services provider in the world by Tier 1 capital ($32.5 billion). According to Datamonitor, by market share, Barclays is the largest financial services provider globally with $3.7 trillion of assets. It is the second largest bank in the United Kingdom and the world based on asset size. Its share price fell by 90% in the year to 23 January 2009, but has recovered substantially, leaving it higher as of 3 September 2009 than it had been a year before.
The bank's headquarters are at One Churchill Place in Canary Wharf, in London's Docklands, having moved there in May 2005 from Lombard Street in the City of London. The company also operates Barclays Bank of Delaware , which issues Juniper credit cards.
History
Early years
This bank traces its origins back to 1690 when John Freame and Thomas Gould started trading as Goldsmith bankers in Lombard Street London. The name "Barclays" became associated with the business in 1736, when James Barclay, son-in-law of John Freame, one of the founders, became a partner in the business. In 1728, the bank moved to 54 Lombard Street, which was identified by the 'Sign of the Black Spread Eagle', over the years becoming a core part of the bank's identity.
In 1776 the firm was styled "Barclay, Bevan and Bening" and so remained until 1785, when another partner, John Tritton, who had married a Barclay, was admitted, and the business then became "Barclay, Bevan, Barclay and Tritton".
In 1896 several banks in London and the English provinces, notably Backhouse's Bank of Darlington and Gurney's Bank of Norwich, united under the banner of Barclays and Co., a joint-stock bank. Between 1905 and 1916 Barclays extended its branch network by making acquisitions of small English banks.
Further expansion followed in 1918 when Barclays amalgamated with the London, Provincial and South Western Bank and in 1919 when the British Linen Bank was acquired by Barclays Bank, although the British Linen Bank retained a separate board of directors and continued to issue its own bank notes. Then in 1924 the planned takeover of National Bank of Kingston reached near-completion but was halted three days before finalisation.
Post War
In 1965 Barclays established a US affiliate, Barclays Bank of California in San Francisco.
Barclaycard, the first credit card in the UK, was launched in 1966 and in 1967 Barclays unveiled the world's first ATM cash machine at Enfield, north London. British actor Reg Varney was the first one to use the ATM.
In 1969 the planned merger with Martins Bank and Lloyds Bank was blocked by the Mergers and Monopolies Commission but the acquisition of Martins Bank on its own was allowed. Also that year the British Linen Bank subsidiary was sold to the Bank of Scotland in exchange for a 25% stake, a transaction that became effective from March 1971.
In 1980, Barclays Bank International expanded its business to include commercial credit and took over American Credit Corporation, renaming it BarclaysAmerican.
Barclays became the first bank to re-open branches on Saturday mornings in 1982, twenty years after the practice ended. Two years later, in 1984, Barclays posted record profits.
The following year Barclays Bank and Barclays Bank International merged: as part of the corporate reorganisation, the former Barclays Bank PLC became a group holding company, renamed as Barclays PLC and UK retail banking was integrated under the former BBI, and renamed Barclays Bank PLC .
In 1985 Barclays introduced Connect , the first debit card in the United Kingdom.
Then in 1986 Barclays sold its South African business operating under the Barclays National Bank name after protests against Barclays' involvement in South Africa and its apartheid government. Also that year Barclays bought de Zoete & Bevan and Wedd Durlacher to form BZW and to take advantage of the Big Bang on the London Stock Exchange. And in 1988 Barclays sold Barclays Bank of California to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Edgar Pearce, the "Mardi Gras Bomber", began a terror campaign against the bank and the supermarket chain Sainsbury's in 1994.
In 1996 Barclays bought Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors (WFNIA) and merged it with BZW Investment Management to form Barclays Global Investors.
Two years later - in 1998 - the BZW business was broken up and parts were sold to Credit Suisse First Boston: Barclays retained the debt business which formed the foundation of what is now Barclays Capital.
In 1999 in an unusual move as part of the trend at the time for free ISPs, Barclays launched an internet service called Barclays.net: this entity was acquired by British Telecom in 2001.
The new millennium
The year 2000 saw the acquisition of Woolwich plc (formerly the Woolwich Building Society). Then in 2001 Barclays closed 171 branches in the UK, many of them in rural communities: Barclays called itself "THE BIG BANK" but this name was quickly given a low profile after a series of embarrassing PR stunts.
In 2003 Barclays bought the American credit card company Juniper Bank from CIBC, re-branding it as "Barclays Bank Delaware". The same year saw the acquisition of Banco Zaragozano, the 11th Spanish bank.
Barclays took over sponsorship of the Premier League from Barclaycard in 2004.
In 2005 Barclays sealed a £2.6bn takeover of Absa Group Limited, South Africa's largest retail bank, acquiring a 54% stake on 27 July 2005.
Then in 2006 Barclays purchased the HomEq Servicing Corporation for $469 million in cash from Wachovia Corp. That year also saw the acquisition of the financial website Comparetheloan and Barclays announcing plans to rebrand Woolwich branches as Barclays, migrating Woolwich customers onto Barclays accounts and migrating back-office processes onto Barclays systems - the Woolwich brand was to be used for Barclays mortgages.
In January 2007 Barclays announced that it has purchased the naming rights to the Barclays Center, a proposed 18,000-seat arena in Brooklyn, New York, where the New Jersey Nets planned to relocate.
Planned merger with ABN AMRO
In March 2007 Barclays announced plans to merge with ABN AMRO, the largest bank in the Netherlands. However, on 5 October 2007 Barclays announced that it had abandoned its bid, citing inadequate support by ABN shareholders. Fewer than 80% of shares had been tendered to Barclay's cash-and-shares offer. This left the consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland free to proceed with its $99.9 cents counter-bid for ABN AMRO.
To help finance its bid for ABN AMRO, Barclays sold a 3.1% stake to China Development Bank and a 3% stake to Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singaporean government.
Also in 2007 Barclays agreed to purchase Equifirst Corporation from Regions Financial Corporation for $225 million. That year also saw Barclays Personal Investment Management announcing the closure of their operation in Peterborough and its re-siting to Glasgow, laying off nearly 900 members of staff.
Financing
On 30 August 2007, Barclays was forced to borrow £1.6bn ($3.2bn) from the Bank of England sterling standby facility. This is made available as a last-resort when banks are unable to settle their debts to other banks at the end of daily trading. Despite rumours about liquidity at Barclays, the loan was necessary due to a technical problem with their computerised settlement network. A Barclays spokesman was quoted as saying "There are no liquidity issues in the U.K markets. Barclays itself is flush with liquidity."
On 9 November 2007, Barclays shares dropped 9% and were even temporarily suspended for a short period of time, due to rumours of a £4.8bn ($10bn) exposure to bad debts in the US. However, a Barclays spokesman denied the rumours. Subsequent write-downs at the bank were announced to be £1 billion ($1.9 billion), much less than feared.
In July 2008, Barclays attempted to raise £4.5bn through a non-traditional rights issue to shore up its weakened Tier 1 capital ratio, which involved a rights offer to existing shareholders and the sale of a stake to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Only 19% of shareholders took up their rights leaving investors China Development Bank and Qatar Investment Authority with increased holdings in the bank.
In 2008 Barclays bought the credit card brand Goldfish for $70 million gaining 1.7 million customers, and $3.9 billion in receivables. Barclays also bought a controlling stake in the Russian retail bank Expobank for $745 million. Later in the year Barclays commenced its Pakistan operations with initial funding of $100 million.
Lehman Brothers acquisition
On September 16, 2008, Barclays announced its agreement to purchase, subject to regulatory approval, the investment-banking and trading
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