Barclays Bank is a Public Limited company (plc) which specialises in financial services. Through being a PLC this means Barclays sells shares (i?? 6. 80) which means part of the company is owned by shareholders. Although Barclays is UK based it has many organisations worldwide such as USA, Africa and Asia. The first Barclays Bank can be traced back to as early as 1896 and today is the third largest bank in the United Kingdom. However, by total assets Barclays is in fact the largest bank in the world1.

Barclays Bank specialises in five main sections consisting of UK banking, International Retail and Commercial Banking, Barclays Capital, Wealth Management and Barclaycard. Each section consists of separate segments explaining how best to manage and invest your money. Barclays runs over 800 international branches. These provide a variety of banking services consisting of current accounts, investments, savings, loans and mortgages as well as providing for business customers across India, Italy, Portugal, Africa, France, Spain and the Middle East.

It is also accountable for Barclay’s majority stake in Asba (South Africa’s largest retail bank) which has over eight million customers. From this we can see that Barclays has already successfully expanded internationally and provides a wide range of products. With their growing clientele Barclays need to ensure they maintain their high standards and quality of advertisements for both existing and potential customers. This is the investment banking section of Barclays PLC. Barclay’s capital provides large government, business and institutional clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs.

They have the global reach to provide world wide and meet the needs of their target market. Barclay’s capital could appeal to a large number of governments, businesses and institutional clients worldwide as they already maintain an international customer base. If Barclays were to expand their Barclays Capital it would largely improve their brand name and market share. UK’s first credit card which can be used to pay for goods and services on more than 24 million places in over 150 countries.

They can also be used to withdraw cash form banks and 1 million cash machines world wide. Internationally Barclaycard operates in Ireland, Spain, United States, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Germany and across Africa. Barclaycard has already been very successful expanding globally as it can be used in over 150 countries. Through expansion Barclays takes a step closer to one of its main objectives; to build the best bank in the UK. Through further expansion Barclaycard may begin to monopolise the credit card market.