Office address: 745 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
Website: www.barclays.co.uk
Year established: 1965
Company type: financial services
Employees: 11,500+ (US)
Expertise: mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, debt financing, equity financing, risk management, research, trading, restructuring, leveraged finance, industry coverage across sectors
Parent company: Barclays PLC
Key people: C.S. Venkatakrishnan (group CEO), Anna Cross (group finance director), Craig Bright (group co-COO), Stephen Dainton (president), Anne Marie Darling (group co-COO), Cathal Deasy and Taylor Wright (global co-heads of investment banking)
Financing status: corporation
Barclays is a global financial services firm with a strong US presence, especially in investment banking. The company offers mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and trading services. Its investment banking division, Barclays Capital, focuses on advisory, financing, and trading for institutional clients.
Barclays set up its first US affiliate, Barclays Bank of California, in 1965 in San Francisco. The company’s roots, however, reach back to London in 1690, when John Freame and Thomas Gould ran a goldsmith banking business on Lombard Street.
By 1736, James Barclay joined the family, and the name became a fixture in British banking. Over time, small family-run banks struggled to compete, so in 1896, twenty of them joined forces to create Barclay and Company Limited.
Quaker families helped shape the firm, bringing business ties and a reputation for trust. By 1896, the merged bank had 182 branches and 806 staff. Continuing mergers made Barclays the third largest bank in Britain by 1920.
Under Frederick Craufurd Goodenough, the bank acquired Colonial Bank, Anglo-Egyptian Bank, and the National Bank of South Africa. In 1925, these were merged to form Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas), which later became Barclays Bank International. At home, Barclays grew by acquiring Martins Bank in 1968 and by hiring more women, who outnumbered men on staff by 1962.
The company continued to evolve, acquiring The Woolwich in 2000 and Juniper Financial in 2004. The company also changed its structure, moving from local offices to regional and then centralized services.
In 1986, it launched its investment banking arm, which became Barclays Capital. This division expanded further in 2008 after acquiring parts of Lehman Brothers. In 2016, the firm focused its strategy on the UK and US, selling several international businesses and reducing its stake in Africa.
By 2018, the firm made its biggest structural changes in decades to meet new UK regulations. The company separated its UK retail and business bank from its international and investment bank.
Barclays Capital offers a broad range of investment banking and market solutions tailored to institutional and corporate clients:
Barclays Capital provides research and digital banking services as part of its global platform. The firm provides tailored solutions to support clients with risk management and financial objectives.
Barclays Capital states that its culture encourages people to be themselves and contribute in meaningful ways. The company also lists these values:
According to Barclays Capital, it aims to build a supportive, inclusive workplace where employees can bring their whole selves to work. Their benefits include:
Barclays Capital also describes valuing unique perspectives and skills, helping teams thrive together. The company shows a sense of belonging and community, encouraging every employee to feel recognized and included.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan is the group CEO of the firm, appointed in 2021. Before this, Venkatakrishnan led global markets and served as co-president of Barclays Bank PLC. Earlier, he worked at JPMorgan Chase in senior roles across asset management, investment banking, and risk.
Here are the key people leading Barclays, each bringing unique experience and focus to their roles:
The board creates Barclays’ strategy and the executive committee carries out those plans.
In 2024, Barclays Capital agreed to pay a $1.25 million fine after Finra found lapses in its fingerprinting and background checks for thousands of employees. The company is now updating its supervisory systems and has already fingerprinted nearly 1,800 staff to meet compliance rules. These changes help Barclays strengthen its internal controls, which support client trust and the firm’s long-term regulatory standing.
The company is also helping lead the surge in global mergers and acquisitions as the AI sector grows. The firm’s bankers are advising on some of the largest deals, such as Alphabet’s $32 billion purchase of Wiz. This activity positions it to support clients in major transactions and strengthens its advisory business for the future.
Barclays PLC said earnings will be in line with consensus, despite a £1.3 billion ($2.7 billion) write-down.
As early as next year, retirees may see a new hybrid investment product that blends mutual funds with insurance guarantees, possibly signifying an alliance between the two industries.
Although exchange traded funds increasingly provide an inexpensive way for financial advisers to gain access to international markets, analyzing such ETFs is more difficult than analyzing those that stick to domestic securities.
Barclays Global Investors has launched eight new iShares international exchange traded funds.
In a move criticized by some industry experts, ProShare Advisors LLC plans to introduce 48 exchange traded funds that use leverage to provide short or magnified exposure to commodities and currencies.
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Nick Leeson, the rogue derivatives trader whose fraudulent transactions brought down London's venerable Barings Bank, has a new gig.
Barclays has launched eight exchange-traded notes to track commodities on NYSE Arca today.
BS AG remained the world’s largest money manager in terms of assets under management, with $2.45 trillion, to lead the Pensions & Investments/Watson Wyatt Worldwide ranking of the world’s 500 largest money managers in 2006.
Bringing to market actively managed exchange traded funds has proved to be an elusive goal, but at least six managers think that they have the secret formula to make these vehicles work.
Hundreds of exchange traded funds may not see the light of day, because seed capital for such funds is drying up.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., is expected to remove a controversial requirement from his 401(k) bill that a low-cost index fund be included in all such plans, said an industry official.
ETF assets increased by 9.7% in September, as 15 new funds were launched, according to State Street.
SponsorMatch lets employers give defined-contribution plan participants the longevity protection of a DB plan.
More than two years after the launch of the first variable annuity based on exchange traded funds, VA providers and financial advisers are still ap-proaching the product with caution.
