Looking to stay competitive, Barclays has announced a new digital investment platform that promises to lower fees for investment services; the platform will be available to existing customers in 2017, providing an upgraded dashboard for viewing checking, savings and investment accounts, also adding increased capabilities for direct investments; this will help the bank keep in line with recent fintech innovation as robo advisors are becoming a bigger force in the wealth management space. Source
Barclays recently announced Shelton Shugar as the new CIO of the credit card division; in a Q&A with American Banker, Shugar discusses how they plan to compete in the US payment space and ultimately compete with fintechs; he also talks about the company's cloud computing strategy as well as his perspective on voice recognition and chatbots. Source
Barclays is launching the My Personal Bank finance service that will link all of a customer’s Barclays based accounts; they are testing the tool with 7,500 Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard cardholders. Source.
Speaking on a panel at the annual meeting of the Institute of International Finance in Washington, CEO Jes Staley stated, “There are some tectonic shifts going on, driven by tech and the geopolitical environment…All the banks are very focused on the payments space. That may be where the battleground of finance is fought over the next 15 years.”; cybersecurity is also a top concern for financial firms and the co-head of Deutsche Bank AG’s corporate and investment bank expressed concerns on whether regulators are holding fintech firms to the same regulatory standards. Source
American Banker’s Penny Crossman volunteered as a mentor for Barclays New York Accelerator and found that succeeding as a fintech startup is quite a challenge; she was tasked with helping entrepreneurs deal with the media, she found that most were looking to be featured in the WSJ or FT; she also sat down with Jon Zanoff, managing director, recruiter and top coach of the program to discuss the program; interesting tidbits from the interview include 4 of 9 company founders are female, the program is a lot more in depth than other bank accelerators and the challenge the program presents on a daily basis. Source.
UK bank Barclays has launched a new service for its small and medium-sized business customers; it will now offer the business customers mobile credit applications for loans and overdraft products; loan approvals and funding can be received in an hour. Source
Online lender Earnest is working with Barclays to find a potential buyer; seeking buyout at approximately $200 million; firm has raised over $300 million since 2013 and grown to 200 employees. Source
During a panel discussion at LendIt Europe in London representatives from leading incumbent lenders Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), ING, BBVA, HSBC, and Barclays discussed the challenges faces in the new digital world; topics discussed include cultural transformation, more power in the customers hands and trying to stay on top of the latest tech trends. Source.
Barclaycard is rebranding as Barclays in the US and launching a digital only bank in 2018; they have been testing the market since last year and plan to fully launch their offering next year; Barclays is more of a household name in the UK but has been offering credit card services under the Barclaycard name in the US. Source.
JPMorgan Chase and Barclays have joined IBM’s quantum computing network as they look to use the technology to assess risk and stay secure; Barclays is beginning to test potential uses and JPMorgan Chase is looking to leverage quantum computing for trading, portfolio optimization and risk analysis; there is a lot happening in quantum computing these days as big tech firms look to master the technology seen as potentially 100,000 times faster than classic computers; while there are clear benefits to quantum computing banks are also looking at protecting themselves from the cyber threat that hackers could exploit using the same technology. Source.