Barclays
Barclays Branch. Source: Reuters
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  • British universal bank Barclays has been given the go-ahead by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to operate as a foreign bank branch as of April 2022
  • According to a statement by Barclays, opening in Syndey is vital to growing the bank’s clientele and delivering to more Australian corporate and institutional clients
  • On its home turf, Barclays is the third-largest bank in Britain by market value and has established arms of its business in Southeast Asia
  • Barclays move into Australia comes a year after HSBC and Standard Chartered rooted themselves in China in hopes to tap into the opening sector

British universal bank Barclays has been given the go-ahead by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to operate as a foreign bank branch as of April 2022.

According to a statement by Barclays, opening in Sydney is vital to growing the bank’s clientele and delivering to more Australian corporate and institutional clients.

“Australia presents tremendous growth opportunities and is an important financial services market in the region,” Head of Barclays Asia Pacific Jaideep Khanna said.

On its home turf, Barclays is the third-largest bank in Britain by market value and has established arms of its business in Southeast Asia.

It has operated as a corporate and investment bank throughout Asia and is present in China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Singapore.

Barclays move into Australia comes a year after HSBC and Standard Chartered rooted themselves in China in hopes to tap into the opening sector.

The bank re-established its Australian office in 2018 and focussed on providing global financing solutions to local clients.

“Barclays has built momentum steadily in our business over the past few years. We announced our strategic investment in Barrenjoey Capital Partners in September 2020, and are already seeing results of the investment with a strong pipeline of transactions one year on,” Country CEO and Head of Investment Banking Richard Satchwell said.

“Today’s news on the ADI license is another landmark and will further accelerate our plans to deepen the dialogue with Australian and global clients looking for opportunities in Australia,” he added.

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