Contents:
Barclays PLC
Bedford Square Business Centre
Barclays is a UK-based financial service group engaged primarily in the banking and investment banking businesses. Today Barclays is one of the largest financial service groups in the United Kingdom. The Group operates in over 70 countries around the world and provides co-ordinated global services to multinational corporations and financial institutions in the world's main financial centres.
History
Barclays' history can be traced back to a bank named The Three Anchors in Lombard Street in the late 17th century.
In 1728, a son of one partner bought the Black Spread Eagle building in Lombard Street and moved his office there. The address later became the site of Barclays' Head Office and the Spread Eagle became the symbol of Barclays.
James Barclay who was admitted to join the partnership in 1736 is the man who finally gave the bank of today his name. His grandson, Robert Barclay, lead the bank into a strong Quaker connection. This connection remained a feature of Barclays for generations.
Quakers cultivated the virtues of simplicity, thrift, sobriety and probity. Their temperament and attitudes fitted well for the business of banking.
In the 1833s Bank of England Act all banks were permitted to build joint stock companies. At the end of the 19th century many banks recognised that they were vulnerable because of their size. For this reason many banks united as joint-stock enterprises.
In 1896 Barclays decided that this was the pattern for the future and amalgamated with nineteen other banks
The building of Barclays in 1896 was followed by a long set of amalgamations with over 32 other banks. In 1918 Barclays Bank Ltd. was raised to the status of being one of the 'Big Five' English banks.
The hey-day of amalgamations ended in 1919 after the Colwyn Committee Report made it necessary for all banks mergers to be approved by the Bank of England and the Treasury.
However Barclays Bank amalgamated, after another clarifying report by the National Board for Prices and Income in 1967, with Martins Bank in 1968. Due to this key event in the newer history of Barclays, the bank became one of the 'Big Four'.
Organisational hierarchy
The UK Branch Network of Barclays is organised as on chart 1 detailed.
Barclays Head Office is located at 54 Lombard Street, London. The function of Head Office is to agree, control and co-ordinate the Banks strategies and policies across all areas of the Group.
The responsibilities of the HO function are split into a number of Head Office Departments. They research, design and introduce changes to policy, services or products.
The purpose of Centres is to undertake certain jobs and procedures from a central point (e.g.: Security services), which brings benefits in terms of processing, administration and IT.
13 Regional Offices are spread across the UK. Their role is to act as
Group Parent Branches act as a central point for many administrative and management functions. In addition, all the bank accounts for the customers of Parent and Group Member branches are maintained at the Parent.
Group Member Branches can be considered as satellite branches to the Group Parent. They do not normally have any managers on site although they offer a full range of services to customers.
Management structure
Unlike German law, British law defines only two organs to run a company:
A Supervisory Board, like the German legislation, is not known. Only an 'independent' position between shareholders and directors is defined as Company Secretary. However a director, but not a sole director, may serve as secretary.
To avoid a too powerful position of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Barclays defines the Group Executive Committee headed with the Chief Executive Director. The Management Structure of Barclays is principally as described on chart 2. However, the structure is more complicated and difficult to understand even for the managers in my branch. Just to give an idea of the practical structure.
Business description & Group structure
Barclays is involved in four main areas of business:
UK Banking Services
BZW
Asset Management Group
International and Private Banking.
The UK Banking Services is an integrated business organised into
These three areas of banking are supported by
The Personal Banking division of Barclays provides a large range of services and products including current accounts, savings, deposit and investment products, consumer loans, mortgages, pensions, unit trusts and life and general insurance. Barclaycard offers a full credit card service, including card payment facilities to businesses.
The Business Banking division provides services to small, medium (core) and large (complex) business customers. In addition to the full range branch-based services, Business Banking provides factoring, invoice discounting, asset backed financing, contract car hire, telephone banking to sole traders, electronic banking services via a Windows-based program (BusinessMaster) and equity to small and medium sized businesses through Barclays Ventures.
The Cross-border Services has a personal and business client base in the UK and overseas. The services offered include personal and business offshore banking, trade finance, institutional banking, retail and wholesale sales of foreign currency bank notes and cross border paper payments products.
Barclays established offshore services in 1996 as a single unit including the specialist centres in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and London Knightsbridge.
BZW (Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd) is the Investment Bank of Barclays PLC. The revenues of this group come from
BZW corporate finance advisory activities include capital raisings, secondary offerings, listings, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, privatisation and general advice on matters such as corporate refinancing and restructuring.
The Barclays Asset Management Group is the investment management arm of the Group. It offers asset management services to institutional and retail clients, advanced active and indexed asset management services, retail fund management, executorship, trustee and tax services, retail stockbroking, PEP management and unit trust business.
International and Private Banking comprises retail banking operations outside the UK together with private banking and problem country debt management.
In continental Europe, operations include branch networks in Spain, France, Greece, Portugal and, through the private bank Merck Fink, Germany primarily providing banking services to the medium and high net worth personal markets.
In Africa and in the Caribbean, retail banking operations serve the personal and business markets.
Barclays Private Banking serves the needs of private clients with substantial personal wealth. It offers multi-currency banking, trust and fiduciary services and investment management from offices around the world.
Value and Mission of the Group
The company outlines four main values which should be considered in the daily work of each employee when dealing with another employee as well as a customer:
Of course, the values are written in a team-formula ("We approach...").
The mission of the bank is to be one of the best Financial Services Groups in the eyes of customers, staff and shareholders.
Social responsibility and integrity was named as one mission-aspect until 1993.
Training and Personnel policy
Every member of the staff is graded in seven levels. The level describes the job responsibilities and the base of the salary. Usually an applicant for a job in a bank doesn't need any training before starting in the job, though there is today a preference for applicants with a university degree. The applicant will start with the level B1 and will usually start his career in the Customer Services department. After three to four weeks probation, Barclays decides whether the new employee should stay with Barclays or not. The employee has to achieve several targets while he works. He receives an assessment of performance after this period describing his work (Appendix 1). The training on the job is supported by several one-day computer courses in the Central Training & Development Centre. The courses can take longer periods at higher levels. Evaluation of the job done will be held once a year at which point it will be decided if an employee should be considered for the next level. The employee is able to change his job by applying for another job which is offered in the monthly newsletter 'Job Opportunities'. An employee usually changes his job after 2-3 years. It is possible to reach the management level in ten years. The time will be usually much shorter for the employee with a degree. However this employee will probably never reach the Board level of management. But there is also another opportunity for graduates with honours to become part of the Management Development Programme. It is designed to prepare graduates for the most senior roles in the Barclays Group and there are vacancies for between fifty and seventy candidates per year. Whereas the demand is for 3x as many places. The programme contains four modules and the graduates are administered by the Training Department and are therefore not responsible to the branch/department management.
The modules are
The training consists of branch/department based working experiences and of individual training events (e.g.: Team Working in the Mountains, Motivating and Influencing others, Problem solving, Finance, Marketing, ...). Every trainee is expected to become ACIB (Associate of the Chartered Institute of Banker) qualified. Hence he has to study Law, Accounting, Management, Marketing, Economic, IT and other bank related subjects.
Once an employee is part of the 'normal' staff of Barclays, he is demanded to set up clear performance objectives which are linked to business objectives in his area. The performance of each member of the staff will be reviewed regularly, against consistent standards, by team leaders.
A final review meeting in the year will be the annual appraisal. This appraisal is the base for every decision in regard of the employee.
All role profiles for standard jobs are set up in four parts:
An application for a job is only possible, if the applicant fulfils the grade criteria. Usually the applicant will be invited for an interview. However things are now changing in Barclays. Applicants for the new central Security Department for London have to participate at an assessment centre. The assessment centre includes interviews , aptitude tests (appendix 2) and a personality questionnaire. Remember, the applicants for these jobs have probably been working for the bank for over 5 years.
The pay structure links salaries and bonuses to performance and achievement for all staff. There is only a small emphasis on the time an employee has been in his job.
Since 1990, Barclays has seen an overall reduction in staff numbers, particularly in processing and administration.
Information Technology
Barclays was the first bank in the UK which ordered a computer for branch book-keeping in 1959. It was also the first bank which installed Automatic-Teller-Machines in 1966.
Since then, the Barclays computer systems has upgraded, but many functions were not able to become a part of the old system (BCIS). Barclays therefore equipped the branches with different systems.
The Bedford Square Business Centre is equipped with five independent systems (BCIS, Lending Advisor, Barclays Customer Management System, security management system and computers equipped with useful Windows applications). There are in addition separate systems in main centres and the HQ of Barclays. An exchange of information between these systems is often not possible.
Today the bank is going to implement the different functions based on the Barclays Customer Management System . The functions of the BCIS and Lending Advisor are already implemented into one system in well equipped branches. Security information will be provided after 1998.
To describe the functions which the system is able to provide would exceed this project. However, I will give two examples to provide a picture of the differences:
A major difference between Germany and Britain is in the handling of shares. The computerised trading or the holding of shares was new until last year. Share certificates were held usually by the customer or in security departments of the banks. The information about the shares held was maintained manually in large Security folders. However the system is changing. In 1996, the UK Security Industry introduced a computerised system to provide the option of trading or holding of shares without paper certificates (CREST) which is quite similar to German practice.
Due to law restrictions it is not possible in Germany to save computerised information about correspondences. A copy of a letter must be held in original paper. Barclays in the UK saves these copies computerised. The file of written letters is therefore no longer necessary.
Europe & Global market
At present it is not certain whether, when or where European Monetary Union will start. To receive information about the position of Barclays is not easy because the Management has just started to make up his mind.
However Barclays checked their computer system one year ago and whether it is able to account in two different currencies (Euro & Pound for the transformation period) or not.
In many European countries the influence of the State is discouraging to Barclays because of the restricting profitability in these countries.
However Barclays expect technological advancements and harmonisation of regulation in the European countries to speed up the process of rationalisation.
In concern of global markets, Barclays believes in his strength in this field because of the global network.
Bedford Square Business Centre
Bedford Square Business Centre is a Barclays branch for small, core and complex business customers. The branch has no cash-facilities and is not set up for personal customers.
The branch is situated in the well-off west-centre of London (Tube station Tottenham Court Road: 5 minutes walk). The neighbours of the branch are some of the largest business companies of. Some of them are therefore customers of this branch.
The branch is subdivided into six sections:
Management
Financial Services
International Business Team
Customer Services
Administration
Accounts
The Management is the nominated point of contact for existing and potential non-personal customers. Each manager has a particular portfolio of customers and provides a high quality service.
He responds to all queries, requests, complaints, opening new accounts, initiating cross-selling opportunities and promoting/selling the bank's products and services. He also acts as point of reference for other branch staff in relation to non-personal products.
The Management is also the head of the branch. All other sections are secondary in relating to the Management.
The Financial Services are divided into two main areas:
The personal assistants assist their manager in providing researched information on ad hoc projects, corporate lending applications, out of order accounts, new business propositions and generally support the Management team of the branch.
The security management is responsible for the controlling and taking of security in support of lending by branch management, and provides a financial service to customers (advice, guidance and answering queries).
The International Business Team has to undertake International business development in the branch, supporting the management team as international experts. They are responsible for the international banking unit, providing a comprehensive international service to customers.
The Customer Service provides a telephone service, answering queries about customer accounts. They also deal with queries received in the post and from other sections in the branch.
The Administration is responsible for the smooth running of the branch. They manage the staff, training and the stationary of the branch. They manage also with processing problems. Here, theyre also responsible for fraud.
The Accounts Section process customers transactions received from the branch. Their prime responsibility is to ensure that accounts are maintained and updated correctly.
The branch made in 1996 a net profit of £6.2m. Due to a re-organisation of the branch system of Barclays, the branch is destined for closure in September 1997.
Major differences between the working environment in Germany & Britain
After six weeks of working experience in the branch named above, I mentioned four major differences between the working environment in Germany and Britain:
I. The customer is in high priory for British companies. The daily work of an employee in the Customer Service is measured by a computer system that provides all statistical information about his work (e.g.: How long does it take until he lifts up the phone, general times on customer spend). I was impressed to see every telephone ring lift up within two seconds. Also the voice of an employee is changing instantly in contact with a customer. Itll be very friendly under all circumstances.
The service brought to customer is very personnel in favour of using the "I"-form instead of the "We"-form.
II. The staff is less trained. "Learning by doing" is the golden rule. Every member of the staff was friendly and very willing to explain the reasons why work has to be done in a certain way. I was impressed that the connections of delegated works were explained to the staff. In my eyes, this improves the team-working skills of the staff very well.
A problem of this type of training is that the change of work-procedures is difficult. The senior staff is sometimes not willing to adopt new suggestions of junior staff. The responsibilities of change in procedures is laid to Head Office.
Another result is that the branch consists of lots of different specialised staff which sometimes has only very easy (=boring) daily duties. The work is more structured, so untrained staff has no difficulties to adopt the work. Lots of responsibilities are delegated to the Head Office or specialised centres.
III. The dealing with law requirement is relaxed. A computer screen placed in the way all other customers can read confidential information is probably not the right way to serve the Data Protection Act. Also health requirements set up in law of the European Union are often not met in my branch (e.g.: screen in front of a window, old chairs not switchable in height...).
IV. The charges for services are higher in Britain. Well, although banking is a highly competitive market in Britain the charges are about 25-50% higher than in Germany.
Barclays vs. Bankgesellschaft Berlin
Income 1995
Total Balance & Equity 1995
Expenditures 1995
Shareholder structure
Staff per customer 1995
Costs / Staff 1995
References:
Barclays PLC, audited accounts and report 1996,
London, 1997
Barclays PLC shareholders information 1996
London, 1997
Barclays Bank PLC audited accounts and report 1996
London, 1997
Barclays Bank PLC CRM, an introduction
London, 1996
Barclays Bank PLC Customer Relationship Management, handbook
London, 1997
Barclays PLC European Monetary Union
London, 1997
Ian Puddephat Training & staff policy,
Bedford Square, Administration Manager
Lisa Greenfield Customer Relationship Management, Lending Advisor
Soho Square Branch, Corporate Manager
Lesley Brown Training
Training Department London, Bakerstreet, Training Advisor
Mark Hobson Customer System
Bedford Square, Financial Services
Nick Howe Organisation of Barclays, Management Structure
Bedford Square, Financial Services Manager