Barclays to invest in retail banking
(2 July 2010 – UK) The British bank Barclays has announced plans to invest around £1 billion in its global retail banking operations over the next four years.
Late last year the bank had an organisational reshuffle which saw former Barclaycard boss Antony Jenkins take the reigns of the newly created Global Retail Banking division.
At an investor seminar outlining his strategy for the new unit, Jenkins revealed plans to add up to four million retail customers by 2013, expanding in all 21 markets in which Barclays operates.
Last year the bank's retail unit had 37 million customers and posted a pre-tax profit of £1.8 billion, 39 percent of which was generated in the UK. It is pushing for ‘strong’ profit growth over the next few years and a return on equity of 13 percent to 15 percent for retail banking.
To achieve the ambitious goals the bank is planning to spend £250 million each year for the next four years on completing the bank’s refurbishment and the induction of new technologies.
The bank’s head said that over the past three years the firm has already upgraded 17,000 branches, claiming that growth in new current accounts in the refurbished branches in the UK is on average double that of branches awaiting investment.
When outlining the firms technology plans Mr Jenkins said that the bank was already in a market leading position, attracting half a million visitors to the UK mobile banking site and issuing eight million contactless cards.
As delivery through Internet and mobile banking increases, the role of the branch is being redefined from transactional to customer orientated. I believe that we're at a fork in the road driven by these changes, Mr Jenkins said.
Barclays can go on optimising what it currently does, or it can take advantage of these changes. I'm confident that we're better placed than others to take advantage, thanks to the strength of our brand, our scale, and our track record. Over the next few years we want to move from being a 'me-too' bank to being the 'go-to' bank, the bank’s head highlighted.
At an investor seminar outlining his strategy for the new unit, Jenkins revealed plans to add up to four million retail customers by 2013, expanding in all 21 markets in which Barclays operates.
Last year the bank's retail unit had 37 million customers and posted a pre-tax profit of £1.8 billion, 39 percent of which was generated in the UK. It is pushing for ‘strong’ profit growth over the next few years and a return on equity of 13 percent to 15 percent for retail banking.
To achieve the ambitious goals the bank is planning to spend £250 million each year for the next four years on completing the bank’s refurbishment and the induction of new technologies.
The bank’s head said that over the past three years the firm has already upgraded 17,000 branches, claiming that growth in new current accounts in the refurbished branches in the UK is on average double that of branches awaiting investment.
When outlining the firms technology plans Mr Jenkins said that the bank was already in a market leading position, attracting half a million visitors to the UK mobile banking site and issuing eight million contactless cards.
As delivery through Internet and mobile banking increases, the role of the branch is being redefined from transactional to customer orientated. I believe that we're at a fork in the road driven by these changes, Mr Jenkins said.
Barclays can go on optimising what it currently does, or it can take advantage of these changes. I'm confident that we're better placed than others to take advantage, thanks to the strength of our brand, our scale, and our track record. Over the next few years we want to move from being a 'me-too' bank to being the 'go-to' bank, the bank’s head highlighted.
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