Barclays to accelerate Australian push with granting of ADI licence

British financial major Barclays will expand further into Australia by April after being granted a licence to operate as a foreign authorised deposit-taking institution.

Barclays is Britain’s third-largest bank and has been expanding its presence in the region in the last few months. Picture: AFP

British financial major Barclays will expand further into Australia by April after the nation’s prudential regulator authorised it to operate as a foreign authorised deposit-taking institution.

Barclays has already made a major foray into the local investment banking scene as a backer of Barrenjoey Capital Partners, which counts among its senior executives and directors former UBS banker Matthew Grounds and businessman David Gonski.

Barclays is led in Australia by Richard Satchwell.

“The ADI licence granted to Barclays is an important step in demonstrating to clients our commitment to the Australian financial market,” Mr Satchwell said.

“Barclays has built momentum steadily in our business over the past few years.

“We announced our strategic investment in Barrenjoey … in September 2020, and are already seeing results of the investment with a strong pipeline of transactions one year on.

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

Barclays re-established its Australia office in 2018 and has been providing global financing services to local clients since that time. It has operated in Asia for more than five decades.

Barclays is Britain’s third-largest bank and has been expanding its presence in the region in the last few months – including making significant investments in its Indian operations.

Under former chief executive Jes Staley, the company closed or scaled back many of its offices in the region, including Australia, South Korea and Malaysia. It has hired nine key executives in Asia in the last eight months.

Its rivals – Standard Chartered and HSBC – have also begun expanding their presence in the region, and focusing on growth in China as the government opens the sector.

“Australia presents tremendous growth opportunities and is an important financial services market in the region,” said Jaideep Khanna, Barclays Asia Pacific head. “This foreign ADI licence reinforces our commitment to Australia and enables us to proactively serve our clients with our global corporate and investment bank platform, supporting their cross-border growth ambitions even further.”