Banca Barclays

Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail banking, credit cards, corporate banking, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.

With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs more than 144,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for more than 48 million customers and clients worldwide.

With a vast, international reach, Barclays offers innovative products and services to meet the needs of its diverse base of customers and clients.

Barclays has two business Clusters: Global Retail Banking and Corporate & Investment Banking and Wealth Management - both comprising world-class businesses and brands.

There are two other major areas of the business: Group Centre and Absa. Group Centre is our head office and support functions operation. The Absa Group is one of South Africa's largest financial services businesses.

As a responsible global citizen, Barclays is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the communities in which the business operates, and strives for sustainable relationships with customers and clients worldwide.

Barclays Group Chairman is Marcus Agius, and the Group Chief Executive is John Varley. They are supported by Barclays Executive Committee and the Board of Directors.

Barclays Group headquarters is at 1 Churchill Place in London, UK, but they have operations all over the world, with products and services to meet the needs of customers and clients in local markets.

Barclays PLC is ranked as the 25th largest company in the world by Forbes Global 2000 (2008 list). According to Datamonitor, by market share, Barclays is the largest financial services provider globally with $3.7 trillion of assets. It is the second largest bank in the United Kingdom and the world based on asset size. Its share price fell by 90% in the year to 23 January 2009, but has recovered substantially, leaving it higher as of 3 September 2009 than it had been a year before.