This article presents a detailed SWOT Analysis of Barclays. SWOT Analysis of Barclays focuses on Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors and Opportunities and Threats are external factors. SWOT Analysis provides a well-tested management methodology that enables Barclays in comparison with competitors and industry to assess its business performance.
Barclays is a world-leading banking and financial services company. Barclays is a British Company. Barclays has its headquarter in London. Barclays is involved in retail, wholesale, and investment banking business. Barclays is a well-established company and has a good brand name.
Bank operates is working in may areas i.e. Retail Banking, Corporate Banking and Investment Banking, Wealth Management and Investment Advisory.
Strengths in the SWOT Analysis of Barclays – Barclays SWOT Analysis
Brand Name: Barclays is definitely one of the best established financial names in its field. Barclay is a official sponsor English Premier League’s. This sponsorship helped Barclay to earn enormous popularity all over the world. Barclays generates large income and will and also guarantees that young people are aware of Barclays by the time they age to claim financial responsibilities.
- Branches & ATMs: The bank has more than 4750+ branches and operates in over 55 countries. Barclays has around 1600 offices in UK. Via post office branches, they also provide personal banking facilities. It is also a member of the global ATM partnership that helps individuals from several banks without having to pay a premium to borrow money from member banks’ ATMs.
- Innovation: Over the years, Barclays has been at the heart of innovation. The first credit card came into being in 1966 and the OnePulse card was just recently introduced, incorporating many features into the card.
- Efficient track record via mergers & acquisition to combine similar businesses. Over the last few years, it has effectively incorporated a range of innovative companies to streamline its activities and create a stable global market.
- Action automation added quality continuity to Barclays services and has allowed the company to scale up and scale down on the basis of market growth trends.
- Good returns on capital expenditure: Barclays is reasonably efficient in introducing new schemes and by developing new sources of revenue, has created good returns on capital expenditure.
- Professionally experienced workers by effective systems of learning and training. Barclays spends enormous resources in the recruitment and growth of its employees, contributing to a workforce that is not only highly trained, but also driven to do more.
- Phenomenal Emerging Markets Performance: Barclays has gained experience in accessing and finding growth in new markets. The extension helps the company develop additional income sources and diversify the impact of the economic cycle in the countries in which it works.
Weaknesses in the SWOT Analysis of Barclays – Barclays SWOT Analysis
- Outbid by ABN Amro: In 2006, ABM Amro outbid Barclay’s bid to penetrate the Asian market, and substantial costs had to be incurred to chalk out a new entry plan.
- Ethical Issues: In the last few years, Barclays has been hit by a variety of scandals. The bank was for instance, suspected in 2009 of breaking international money laundering rules. It was also accused of having helped finance the government of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Barclays was also accused by HM Revenue and Customs in the UK of developing and employing two strategies to prevent large sums of tax. As a result, in 2012, the UK Treasury directed the bank to pay £500 million in tax. Investors can have doubt on Barclays’ honesty and ethics.
- For Barclays, low customer satisfaction rates are also a concern. For eg, in an independent survey in February 2019 that asked customers of the 16 largest personal current account suppliers in the UK, the Bank became No 5 in overall service quality. In branches, it became No 9 in services. It was 2nd in online and mobile banking systems, however.
Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis of Barclays – Barclays SWOT Analysis
- Emerging markets: In emerging countries where there is a growing need for credit in both retail banking and wholesale banking fields, there are great opportunities for Barclays. The push for production and growth would lead to a higher demand for credit. On this, Barclays will capitalise.
- Increase in financial literacy among youth: As education standards grow, the number of young people searching for investing opportunities will increase. Thanks to becoming the English Premier League sponsor, Barclays already has a good brand memory among young people, and it should make use of this recall to tap young people right at the start of their investment journey and aim to retain them as loyal consumers for a long period of time.
- The business should get into a larger portfolio of offerings in order to draw more consumers and should also aim to improve cross: selling.
Threats in the SWOT Analysis of Barclays – Barclays SWOT Analysis
- Closing Branches: Barclays closed a number of branches in 2000 and then gained a reputation for not being a client: friendly company. Other banks have taken advantage of this and have positioned themselves as customer: friendly firms that retain open branches.
- Position in Asia: The position of Barclays in Asia is not as strong as it is in Europe. It is important to look closely and very carefully at their companies in Asia. Asia’s existing players have improved their positions and giving a touch competition to Braclays.
- Economic stability is still a threat, as is the case with any other bank. In a matter of months, when things go wrong in the macro economic scenario, the status of banks can change dramatically.
- In various markets, Barclays faces fierce competition from a variety of rivals. UBS, Deutsche bank, RBS, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan & Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs Group, and ABN AMRO are Barclays biggest rivals.
- Legal Issues. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged Barclays Bank PLC with “illegal financial aid” connected to billions of pounds collected in 2008 by Qatar. Barclays has a banking licence that makes it possible for it to work in numerous countries. If the bank is found to be responsible, though, it would lose the incredibly valuable licence.
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