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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Barclays Barclays is planning to set up a new regional commercial banking centre at the St James Court office development in Norwich, which is due for completion in late 2009. 24-Apr-2008 Barclays is to acquire Expobank, the Russian retail and commercial bank with 32 branches, for £373m. 04-Mar-2008 Barclays has acquired the UK credit card business of Discover Financial Services, including about 700,000 Goldfish customers, for £35m. 11-Feb-2008 Barclays is to proceed with plans to build a new 100,000 sq ft regional headquarters for 850 staff at Asda's Dalgety Mills site in Poole by 2010. 29-Jan-2008 Barclays is to take a further 27,000 sq ft of office space at One Exchange Tower in London's Docklands. 25-Jun-2007 Barclays is considering plans to re-open a regional office in Nottingham, and is thought to be in negotiations for a site in Chapel Bar. 20-Jun-2007 Barclays Bank is to acquire Walbrook Group, the independent fiduciary services company with operations in Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Hong Kong and gross assets of £13m. 22-May-2007 Barclays is to open a private wealth management banking centre at Park Square in Leeds in June, and similar offices will open in other cities. 22-May-2007 Barclays is planning to shed 1,100 jobs at its payment processing centre in Poole over the next three years, and the Barclays House operation will be replaced with a smaller site. 11-May-2007 Barclays is to close its mortgage servicing call centre at the Crossways Business Park in Greenhithe, Kent, with the loss of 91 jobs, in order to transfer the work to Leeds. 20-Apr-2007 Barclays Bank is to sell Barclays Global Investors Japan Trust & Banking, the trust administration and custody operation of its Japanese asset management division, to Sumitomo Trust & Banking for £21m. 17-Apr-2007 Barclays Bank has sold most of Monument, its Sussex-based sub-prime credit card business, to Compucredit of the US for £390m. 06-Apr-2007 Barclays has appointed Atisreal and Donaldsons to help with the sale of more than 200 small branches across the country, following its merger with Woolwich. 02-Apr-2007 Barclays is planning an international expansion programme for its retail banking business, and will open 350 new branches in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Africa and the Middle East this year. 21-Feb-2007 Barclays Bank is to acquire EquiFirst Corporation, the US-based non-prime mortgage company, from Regions Financial Corporation, for £115m. 22-Jan-2007 Barclays Bank is seeking a new office of up to 150,000 sq ft in Birmingham, in order to consolidate some of its existing sites. 22-Jan-2007 Barclays is to acquire Nile Bank, the Ugandan commercial bank with 18 branches and 228 staff, for undisclosed terms. 21-Dec-2006 Barclays is to expand the 1,200-strong workforce at its wealth management division in Glasgow with 500 new jobs over the next three years. 21-Nov-2006 Barclays is to acquire Indexchange, the German provider of exchange traded funds, for £161m, in order to expand its Barclays Global Investors business. 08-Nov-2006 Barclays Bank is to sell some of its vendor finance operations in the UK and Germany to CIT Group of the US, including gross assets of £1.1bn. 03-Oct-2006 Barclays Bank is to relocate four branches and 60 staff from Liverpool city centre to a new £2.5m site at the Grosvenor retail development next spring. 19-Sep-2006 Barclays Bank is seeking a suitable site in Dorset to relocate 2,500 staff from its existing 300,000 sq ft office in Poole. 30-Aug-2006 Barclays Bank is said to be looking into the possibility of setting up an 85,000 sq ft office in Glasgow, which could lead to the relocation of hundreds of jobs from England. 29-Aug-2006 Barclays is to close two asset and sales finance centres in Birmingham and Hastings with the loss of up to 350 jobs, but 140 jobs will be created in Basingstoke. 06-Jul-2006 Barclays is to close three back-office centres in Dudley, Clacton and Bexleyheath by 2008 with the possible loss of up to 1,200 jobs, and is also planning to close up to 200 bank branches and rebrand its 373 Woolwich sites. 29-Jun-2006 Barclays is to acquire HomEq Servicing, the US mortgage servicing company, for £256m. 26-Jun-2006 Barclays is considering plans to open more high street bank branches in prime locations, cut the number of UK processing centres and transfer more work offshore. 12-Jun-2006 Barclays is considering plans to sell off its vendor finance business, which has assets valued at more than £1bn. 30-May-2006 Barclays is planning to invest up to £375m in the expansion of its wealth management business over the next three years, including new staff and technology. 10-Apr-2006 Barclays is planning to set up a chain of 35 bank branches in Italy by the end of next year, at a cost of about £50m, and is also expanding in Portugal. 03-Apr-2006 Barclays is to invest £86m in the expansion of its investment banking operations in India. 22-Mar-2006 Barclays is to create 100 new jobs at its Firstplus secured loans call centre in Cardiff over the next few months, and is seeking a suitable site for a new headquarters to house up to 550 staff. 02-Mar-2006 Barclays has awarded a £130m five-year contract to Getronics to provide desktop and application management services to over 30,000 users. 08-Feb-2006 Barclays Stockbrokers is planning to shed an estimated 60 of the 200 jobs at its call centre in Glasgow. 16-Jan-2006 Barclays is to disband its mortgage processing joint venture with Countrywide Financial of the US by selling its 30% stake in the business to Countrywide, and 1,600 staff will be taken back in-house by Barclays. 16-Nov-2005 Barclays is said to be considering plans to shed up to 500 of the 2,500 jobs from its IT workforce, as part of the restructuring of a desktop outsourcing deal with EDS. 06-Oct-2005 Barclays is to create 250 new jobs at its customer services call centre at the Doxford International Business Park in Sunderland by the end of the year. 27-Sep-2005 Barclays is to shed up to 200 of the 2,500 jobs in its IT department, prompting speculation about the future of its outsourcing contract with EDS. 31-Aug-2005 Barclays is to acquire a 60% stake in Absa, the South African bank, for £2.9bn, and will integrate the business with its existing operations in other African countries. 10-May-2005 Barclays is to acquire a majority stake in Fiat's Iveco vehicle finance and leasing business for £67m. 12-Apr-2005 Barclays has started to relocate its 5,000 head office staff from the City of London to Canary Wharf, and the move should be completed by May. 31-Jan-2005 Barclays Bank is planning to acquire the French wealth business of ING Securities Bank, including ING Ferri and ING Private Banking, creating a combined group with more than 50 branches. 21-Jan-2005 Barclays Commercial Services is to close its office in Reigate next month, with the loss of up to 60 jobs. 24-Sep-2004 Barclays has acquired Juniper, the US credit card company, from CIBC for £160m. 19-Aug-2004 Barclays has acquired a 50% stake in Intelenet Global Services, the Indian business process outsourcing company, for £19m. 17-Aug-2004 Barclays is looking to expand its international banking business, and is particularly interested in Spain, the Middle East and Africa. 12-Aug-2004 Barclays is to shed 250 administration jobs at its Barclaycard division in Northampton. 20-Jul-2004 Barclays is to outsource some of its IT operations to Accenture, in a £400m deal that will involve the transfer of about 900 staff. 24-Jun-2004 Barclays is to recruit 1,000 additional branch staff, in order to improve customer service, but 800 middle management and support jobs will be lost. 07-Jun-2004 Barclays has appointed JLL to review its global portfolio of 4,000 properties, which could result in an outsourcing or sale and leaseback arrangement. 07-Jun-2004 Barclays is looking into the possibility of transferring thousands of call centre jobs abroad. 30-Dec-2003 Barclays is recruiting a further 30 staff to start work at its call centre in Sunderland in February, while 70 are due to start in January. 19-Dec-2003 Accenture is expected to win a £450m software development contract from Barclays Bank, which will involve the transfer of about 1,000 jobs. 18-Dec-2003 Barclays Bank has acquired Gerrard Management Services, the private client wealth manager, from Old Mutual for £210m. 27-Oct-2003 Barclays is to acquire Banco Zaragozano, the Spanish bank with 361 branches, for £810m. 09-May-2003 Barclays is said to be in negotiations to acquire Banco Zaragozano, the Spanish retail bank which is capitalised at about £660m. 28-Mar-2003 Barclays is planning to recruit a further 60 staff at its Cardiff-based Firstplus financial services business, taking the total to 250. 21-Mar-2003 Barclays has acquired the European retail stockbroking business of Charles Schwab for a nominal sum, which will result in the closure of offices in Birmingham and Milton Keynes. 03-Feb-2003 Barclays is planning to expand its Woolwich independent financial advisory division into continental Europe, to attract expatriate customers. 20-Jan-2003 Barclays is to create 500 jobs at its banking call centre in Sunderland this year. 03-Oct-2002 Barclays Private Clients International is to relocate its offshore headquarters to Douglas on the Isle of Man, with the creation of 90 jobs. 09-Sep-2002 Barclays is planning to shed up to 10% of the 1,000 jobs in its private banking operation, in order to reduce costs. 31-Jul-2002 Barclays is planning to sell Woolwich's commercial mortgage book for about £900m, and talks are taking place with General Electric and Citigroup. 19-Apr-2002 Barclays is to combine its Caribbean operations with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, creating a new company called FirstCaribbean International Bank with 87 branches. 01-Nov-2001 Barclays has announced plans to invest £50m in the roll out of Woolwich's Open Plan account, which enables customers to offset their current account balance against their mortgage. 25-Sep-2001 Barclays is to relocate its head office functions from a number of offices throughout London to a new 1m sq ft building at Canary Wharf. 06-Sep-2001 Barclays is planning to extend the opening hours at most of its 1,719 branches over the next two years, with the creation of 2,000 jobs. 27-Apr-2001 Barclays Stockbrokers is planning to shed at least 90 of its 1,800 jobs, with contract staff expected to go first. 06-Apr-2001 Barclays is to close its NuDelta IT processing department in Swindon later this year with the loss of 16 jobs, in order to transfer the work to Gloucestershire. 12-Mar-2001 Barclays is to close its own-brand life insurance division with the loss of 750 jobs, mainly at Stratford in east London, and new pensions and life insurance business will be transferred to Legal & General. 08-Feb-2001 HSBC is to buy Barclays Bank's 13 branches and fund management operations in Greece. 31-Jan-2001 Barclays has announced a deal to sell Legal & General pensions and investment funds, which will lead to the closure of its own life assurance and B2 retail fund management business and the loss of 750 jobs in the London area. 17-Jan-2001 Barclays has announced plans to recruit a further 1,000 staff at its Sunderland call centre over the next year. 13-Dec-2000 Barclays is to recruit a further 600 staff at its telephone banking call centre in Coventry over the next year, taking the total to 1,300. 24-Nov-2000 Barclays is seeking suitable premises for a new corporate headquarters in London, following its recent acquisition of Woolwich. 06-Nov-2000 Aberdeen Asset Management has acquired Barclays Property Investment from Barclays for £20m. 25-Sep-2000 Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Unisys are forming a new company called Intelligent Processing Solutions to supply cheque clearing and processing services to the two banks, with Barclays providing 745 staff and Lloyds 600. 18-Aug-2000 Barclays has reached agreement for the £5.3bn acquisition of the Woolwich mortgage bank, which will result in about 100 branch closures and the loss of 1,000 jobs. 14-Aug-2000 Barclays is planning to launch a £5.3bn takeover bid for Woolwich in order to increase its share of the mortgage market. 10-Aug-2000 Barclays has announced plans to spend £325m on e-commerce this year, including the development of an online savings account and a share-dealing facility for mobile phones. 24-May-2000 Barclays has sold its Dial car leasing business to ABN Amro for £269m, in order to withdraw from the rapidly consolidating market. 26-Apr-2000 Barclays is planning to train customers in the use of internet banking, and has warned that further branch closures are likely if the growth in telephone and internet banking continues. 12-Apr-2000 Barclays is to make basic personal banking services available at post office outlets, in order to reduce the impact of closing many of its rural branches. 07-Apr-2000 Barclays has reached agreement with British Telecom's Syncordia division to replace the internal phone networks that link its branches with a single internet-based communications system. 30-Mar-2000 Barclays and Freeserve are forming a £20m joint venture to develop a web portal for small businesses, and Barclays will switch its own-brand internet access service from British Telecom to Freeserve. 28-Mar-2000 Barclays is to launch an internet-based procurement service called B2B.com to link buyers with suppliers, in partnership with Oracle and Andersen Consulting. 20-Mar-2000 Barclays Bank is to close 172 branches on April 7, mostly in villages, suburban areas, and former mining communities. 16-Mar-2000 Barclays is planning to reduce running costs by £1bn by the end of 2003, which is expected to lead to thousands of job losses in administrative and support staff. 16-Feb-2000 Barclays is to offer its banking services through local post offices, in a trial scheme in Cornwall. 14-Feb-2000 Barclays has announced plans to close 200 branches next year, as more customers are moving to its telephone and internet-based banking services. 15-Nov-1999 Barclays is to set up an electronic market to connect customers and suppliers via the internet, which will enable companies to significantly reduce their procurement costs. 27-Oct-1999 Barclays is selling its Transpay foreign currency processing business to a joint venture of Travelex and the Royal Bank of Scotland for about £25m. 04-Oct-1999 Barclays has appointed David McLean Contractors to refurbish about 120 bank branches. 30-Sep-1999 Barclays is planning to set up a £200m network of venture capital funds in order to provide loans to companies through the eight new English regional development agencies. 09-Sep-1999 Barclays has announced plans to cut a further 1,000 jobs in its international banking operations, as part of an ongoing programme to centralise processes and introduce new technology. 05-Aug-1999 Barclays has awarded a two-year facilities management contract to WS Atkins, covering 3,000 bank branches across the country. 22-Jul-1999 Barclays is increasing its stake in an Egyptian banking joint venture to 60% by buying an additional 11% from Banque du Caire for £13m. 09-Jun-1999 Barclays is returning to the pensions market following a two month absence caused by a regulatory requirement not to sell policies that were incompatible with the planned stakeholder pension. 09-Jun-1999 Barclays has announced plans to cut 6,000 jobs in order to reduce costs by £200m a year, and the reorganisation will involve moving back-office operations to central processing sites, although no branches will be closed. 21-May-1999 Royal Bank of Scotland is said to interested in a merger with Barclays. 06-May-1999 Barclays Private Equity is arranging a £50m deal to acquire Catimini and Groupe Permis de Construire in order to create the second largest retailer of children's clothes in France. 04-May-1999 Barclays has sold Merck Finck, the German private banking business, to Kredietbank Luxembourgeoise for £170m, as it did not fit in with group strategy. 26-Mar-1999 Bifu, the banking union, is to merge with the staff associations from Barclays and National Westminster to create a new trade union for the financial services sector called Unifi. 23-Mar-1999 Barclays is to offer a free internet access service to its personal and small business customers that will include online banking and stockbroking. 16-Mar-1999 Barclays is planning to cut hundreds of jobs in its retail banking operations in order to cut costs by more than £300m, with most of the savings coming from marketing and human resources. 01-Feb-1999 Barclays has opened a new Barclaycall telephone banking centre at Doxford International Business Park in Sunderland, and a further 300 jobs will be created over the next few months. 28-Jan-1999 Barclays Capital is cutting a further 200 jobs and has announced plans to withdraw from proprietary trading and most trading in emerging markets securities. 05-Nov-1998 Barclays is to build a £11m administration processing centre in Leicester, creating almost 850 jobs. 23-Oct-1998 Barclays, Lloyds Bank and Midland Bank are preparing to join the Link network of cash machines, which will mean that customers of almost every UK bank will be able to use any of the country's 25,000 machines. 21-Oct-1998 Barclays is planning to offer "instant banking" that will allow personal account customers to withdraw funds on the same day they deposit a cheque. 10-Sep-1998 Barclays is developing formal servicing arrangements with leading local banks in Austria, Finland and Belgium, in order to offer Europe-wide services to its corporate clients. 26-Jun-1998 Barclays is linking up with the government to trial a new system of digital signatures carried on smartcards to enable people to file tax returns via the internet, and a host of other financial services applications could follow. 17-Jun-1998 Barclays Bank is piloting a "screenphone" banking service that will enable customers to use a larger-than-normal phone to access their bank accounts and link to a number of retailers to order goods. 20-May-1998 Barclays Bank is launching a telephone-based personal equity plan, and is to spend £70m marketing a range of investments under the b2 brand. 06-May-1998 Barclays Bank has warned of 400 job cuts at Global Securities Centres in London and Trowbridge, which is a business being temporarily run by Barclays on behalf of Morgan Stanley of the US. 28-Feb-1998 Barclays Bank is to open a telephone banking centre in Sunderland for its Barclaycall service, creating 2,000 jobs. 27-Feb-1998 Barclays and Standard Chartered have dismissed reports that they were negotiating the creation of a £36bn international banking group. 24-Feb-1998 Barclays has scrapped plans to acquire NatWest, apparently because of the regulatory difficulties involved, and will instead look for an international banking merger. 18-Feb-1998 Barclays is in discussions with Fidelity International about taking on the clients of its FBS broking subsidiary, which was closed last week. 31-Jan-1998 SEC Group, the financial services company, is acquiring Barclays Personal Taxation Service for up to £5m. 23-Jan-1998 Barclays is planning a major reorganisation in April, including the creation of new global divisions for retail financial services, corporate banking, Barclays Capital and Barclays Global Investors. 20-Jan-1998 Barclays Bank is to open its first drive-thru cash machine at Hatton Cross near Heathrow by Easter, and it could be followed by a network across the UK. 19-Jan-1998 Barclays has sold part of its BZW Asian equities business to Credit Suisse First Boston for undisclosed terms, including the Taiwan equities operation and a 70% stake in a Singapore joint venture. 13-Jan-1998 ABN Amro of the Netherlands is acquiring the Australian and New Zealand equity investment banking operations of BZW from Barclays Bank for about £71m. 23-Dec-1997 Barclays is to outsource the running of its £1bn UK property portfolio, thereby abandoning its own attempts to run a property management business. 22-Dec-1997 Lloyds TSB has said it would launch a counter-bid for either NatWest or Barclays if the two banks are allowed to merge. 06-Dec-1997 Barclays has closed its Japanese equities business having failed to agree a sale. 29-Nov-1997 Barclays is selling its European equities and corporate advisory operations to Credit Suisse First Boston for £100m. 13-Nov-1997 NatWest has rejected an informal merger approach from Barclays, a move which would have created the second largest banking group in the UK. 13-Nov-1997 Barclays is planning to sell the stockbroking, equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions businesses of its BZW investment banking division, thus ending its plans to set up a full-scale global investment bank. 04-Oct-1997 Barclays is to rename its unit trust business to Barclays Funds Limited and launch a range of simplified funds, while the Unicorn name will disappear. 16-Sep-1997 Norwich Union has extended its contract with Barclays, and will be Barclays' preferred supplier of personal general insurance products for a further five and a half years. 08-Jul-1997 National Westminster Bank is trying to end rumours of a possible takeover bid by Barclays, by asking the Takeover Panel to get Barclays to announce its intentions. 30-Jun-1997 Barclays is planning to expand its asset management and investment banking operations in Japan in an alliance with Hokkaido Takushoku, in anticipation of the country's financial deregulation. 17-Jun-1997 Barclays is to set up Barclays Ventures, in order to provide in-house venture capital investment management as it aims to provide a complete range of banking and investment services. 11-Dec-1996 Barclays is selling its global custody business to Morgan Stanley for an undisclosed sum, a move which will result in the loss of 400 jobs. 11-Dec-1996 Barclays has decided against setting up home banking services on BSkyB's digital satellite system, and has instead started discussions with Midland Bank's parent HSBC. 15-Nov-1996 Visa is to test-market its Visa Cash card in Leeds next year, with a launch through Barclays, Abbey National, Halifax, Co-operative Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB. 09-Nov-1996 Barclays Bank is to focus its retail custody operations in Peterborough by closing its offices in Trowbridge. 01-Nov-1996 Barclays Bank is in discussions to sell its global custody business to Morgan Stanley of the US. 21-Oct-1996 Barclays is merging its traditional fund management business with the recently-acquired BZW Barclays Global Investors operation as part of a move to increase the use of technology in its money management. 16-Oct-1996 Barclays bank has announced plans to use Microsoft's Money 97 personal finance software for its PC banking service, which is due to launch next spring. 14-Oct-1996 Barclays Bank is to combine its four private banking operations in London to enable it to offer an integrated asset management service aimed at wealthy clients. 04-Jun-1996 Barclays is launching a £60 a year current account called Additions, that offers life assurance, free £100 overdraft facilities and discounted medical cover for children, prompting fears that this could be the beginning of the end for free banking. 08-May-1996 Norwich Union has won a deal to provide household insurance products to Barclays Insurance Services. 27-Mar-1996 Barclays Bank plans to cut 1,000 staff in high street branches, largely in London, the south east and north east. 26-Mar-1996 Barclays Bank is to shed a further 500 jobs from its regional offices. 13-Mar-1996 Barclays Bank is to launch a 24 hour telephone advice service for people filling in the new self-assessment tax forms, and will also offer a service filling in the forms. 29-Feb-1996 Barclays Bank has bought back 40m of its shares for £306m in order to help it manage its capital, following a 12% profit increase. 28-Feb-1996 Barclays is selling its 40 Cyprus branches to the Hellenic Bank for £11.6m. 17-Feb-1996 Barclays may pull out of share registration and transfer its business to Lloyds Bank Registrars and Independent Registrars Group. 26-Jan-1996 Barclays Bank is introducing BarclayZone, an electronic stock dealing and information service which includes a video link between its Glasgow office and the customer. 04-Jan-1996 Barclays is splitting Barclays Financial Services, with Barclays Life and Barclays Unicorn moving into the banking services business and BarclayTrust moving into BZW Asset Management. 02-Dec-1995 Barclays Bank has formed an acquisition finance unit at its Colmore Row, Birmingham, office. 26-Oct-1995 The information above comes from the UK Activity Report Copyright UK Business Park 1995-2008