Barclays Bank may be one of the most famous banks of all time, these days for all the wrong reasons but there was a time when this venerable institution of banking was the first brand name in a word association for offshore banking. With operations in over 50 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America and around 48 million customers. As of 31 December 2010 it had total assets of US$2.33 trillion, the fourth-largest of any bank worldwide (after BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and HSBC).
The issues that has put the Barclay’s Bank name on the tip of so many tongues is the Libor scandal, which relates to the interest rate at which banks are able to borrow money from their central banks and whether these rates were manipulated. It’s easy to see though, that the root of these allegations goes back to the beginning of the global economy crisis of 2008, an event so devastating that it earned it’s own acronym – GEC. The symptoms of which, continue to plague the big global banks and the regulators whose job it was to oversee them.
According to WSJ, several times in 2007 and 2008 Barclays employees reported that large banks, to make themselves appear healthier than they were, claimed to be able to borrow at rates lower than the market was offering them. These communications from Barclays were directed to the Bank of England, the British Bankers Association and the Financial Services Authority in the U.K., and to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then run by Timothy Geithner.
Once upon a time Banking was a noble trade
Way back in 1690 two Quakers from the City of London, John Freame and Thomas Gould formed a partnership as Goldsmiths. It’s important to note that in the beginning of Banking history, Goldsmiths were the banks, and the main enterprise engaged in giving loans to merchants and businessmen. Gold was money in those days.
For 3 decades the two goldsmiths built-up their business and then in 1728 John Freame’s daughter married the ambitious James Barclay, who then became a partner in the bank, which is the origins of the name. It wasn’t too much later that the partnership changed from being Freame and Barclay to become Barclay, Bevan & Co.
Lombard Street was the place to be, that’s where other banks were located in London and that’s where the private bank eventually became known as just Barclay’s and that’s where the roots of the private bank took hold to outlast the lifetimes of five different offices. However, by the end of the 19th century there were branch offices, family owned subsidiaries and other provincial private banks.
In July 1896 Barclays and nineteen other banks amalgamated to form Barclay and Company Limited. At that time they have become one of the sixth largest banks in England. It achieved a listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1902 and became known as Barclays Bank Limited in 1917. The bank was now firmly on the road to becoming the successful global company it is now.
It wasn’t until 1965 that Barclays established a US affiliate, Barclays Bank of California in San Francisco. Although, the one thing that goes largely unknown was that Barclays launched the first credit card in the UK, Barclaycard, in 1966. However, to top that off, on 27 June 1967, Barclays deployed the world’s first ATM, in Enfield, north London. The British actor Reg Varney was the first one to use the ATM.
In 2005 Barclays Bank made the decision to move away from Lombard Street to Canary Wharf.
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