Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide. It is engaged in retail banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking, and wealth management with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

The company offers current accounts, savings products, Woolwich-branded mortgages, unsecured loans, general insurance, and banking and money transmission services to small- and medium-sized businesses; investment and insurance products; business lending services; bank assurance solutions; and retail, credit and debit card, and corporate services. It also offers international payments services for consumer and business customers, including credit cards and consumer lending services; investment banking services comprising strategic advisory, financing, and risk management services to large corporate, government, and institutional clients; integrated corporate banking solutions, including cash management, lending, and trade financing services to corporate and financial institutions as well as multinationals; and a range of wealth and investment management services such as international and private banking, investment management, fiduciary, and brokerage services.

Barclays aims to foster a culture of innovation within the business. It runs its own accelerator (in partnership with Techstars) in London, Tel Aviv and New York. It also has its own national network, Eagle Labs, which launched in 2015 and focuses on innovation across a wide variety of industries. Finally, Barclays also leads Rise, which focuses purely on developing and scaling Fintech companies.

In September 2019, Barclays announced it was to back a new Female Innovators Lab, in partnership with Anthemis. The lab, based in New York, will target female entrepreneurs who wish to establish companies in the banking industry.

In January 2020 Barclay's partnered with Techstars alum and fintech Nimbla, enabling Barclays SME customer to take out insurance against individual invoices, rather than the whole book. Shortly after this, Barclays announced it had taken a minority stake in Flux, the fintech which issues digital receipts directly within banking apps. Flux has issued over a million receipts in this way through partnership with retailers.

Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs more than 147,500 people. Barclays has more than 48 million customers and clients worldwide. The company was formerly known as Barclays Bank Limited and changed its name to Barclays PLC in January 1985. It is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.