UK Volume 21

Superbrands UK Annual Vol.21 uk.superbrands.com With more than 330 years of history and expertise in banking , Barclays is a British universal bank. It operates in business to business and consumer sectors, united by a common set of values and a single guiding purpose, ‘Creating opportunities to rise’ Market Barclays is a player on the global banking stage. It provides diversification by business line, geography and customer, enhancing financial resilience and contributing to the delivery of consistent returns through the business cycle. Its strong core business is well positioned to deliver long-term value for Barclays’ shareholders. Product Barclays operates in more than 40 countries and employs approximately 80,000 people. It moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide, utilising the latest technology in unison with its wealth of banking expertise. Its service company supports these operations by providing technology, operations and functional services across the Group. Achievements Barclays aims to be a company of opportunity makers, working together to ‘help people rise’ – customers, clients, colleagues and society. It is an industry leader in championing diversity and inclusion within the workplace and in delivering services. It also consistently appears in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women as well as ranking highly on the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index. Barclays was the first bank to roll out ‘talking’ ATMs and high visibility debit cards in the UK, assisting those with visual impairments. It is also recognised as a Disability Confident Leader by the UK Government and works to promote the scheme to other employers. Having launched the Dynamic Working campaign, its approach to flexible working, in 2015, Barclays has been recognised with the accolades of Best for Embedded Flexibility and Top 10 Employer for Working Families. In 2018, the bank was one of the first signatories to the UK Government’s Race at Work Charter and is one of 12 Stonewall Top Global Employers for LGBT+ colleagues. Barclays is increasingly recognised as a pioneer in green finance. It has successfully launched an inaugural green bond, green mortgage and asset finance facilities to name a few, as well as corporate deposits. In 2020, Barclays won UK’s Best Bank in the annual Euromoney magazine Awards for Excellence and UK’s Best Investment Bank, the eighth win over the last nine years as well as Excellence in Leadership in Western Europe, for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Recent Developments Since 2013, LifeSkills has been supporting youth employment by raising the confidence, motivation and aspirations of more than 10 million young people, making the move from education into work. The programme helps develop core, transferable skills that businesses increasingly need. In 2019, the programme was extended to encompass the whole of the UK workforce, across all ages, aligning with current employment trends, such as under-employment and an ageing workforce. In addition, Barclays Connect with Work is a global programme providing people that face barriers to work with job-ready skills and connecting them to businesses that are recruiting. In 2019, the programme helped to place 66,000 people into work globally. Barclays also has a range of specific services for the armed forces. Products include tailored loan policies and the ability to pause or cancel insurance policies if deployed at the last minute. Specialist branches near major military installations deliver the Community FLEX proposition – including a revised employment policy to support Barclays colleagues wishing to deploy as military reservists. Barclays’ Unreasonable Impact programme is an international network of accelerators. It’s dedicated to scaling growth-stage entrepreneurs whose ventures have the potential to employ thousands worldwide, while solving some of the most pressing societal and environmental challenges. Since 2016, 124 ventures have been part of Unreasonable Impact; collectively they have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 55 million tonnes, supported 30,000 net new jobs and are positively impacting the lives of more than 200 million people globally. In 1958 Barclays appointed the UK’s first ever female branch manager , Hilda Harding DID YOU KNOW?