Barclays to open branch in Australia next year

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has granted Barclays Bank PLC - one of the UK's largest banks - a licence to operate as a foreign authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) in Australia.

While Barclays re-established its Australia office in 2018 (and has been providing global financing solutions to local clients as a corporate and investment bank in Asia-Pacific), the bank has revealed that Barclays Bank PLC Australia Branch is set to go live as a foreign bank branch locally in April 2022, with Australia being "an important part of Barclays’ growth plans in the region". 

The branch in Sydney has been flagged as a milestone in growing the bank’s client base and enabling it to deliver more to its Australian corporate and institutional clients.  

Jaideep Khanna, head of Barclays, Asia-Pacific, commented: “Australia presents tremendous growth opportunities and is an important financial services market in the region.

“This foreign ADI licence reinforces our commitment to Australia and enables us to proactively serve our clients with our global Corporate & Investment Bank platform, supporting their cross-border growth ambitions even further.” 

Richard Satchwell will lead the Australian arm as country CEO and head of investment banking, Australia.

Mr Satchwell has experience Australian leveraged finance market and has played an active role in offering innovative environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) solutions, as well as supporting key clients across their acquisition financing requirements.

He will continue to lead Barclays’ Australia growth initiatives alongside its local strategic partner, Barrenjoey Capital Partners. 

The country CEO commented: “The ADI licence granted to Barclays is an important step in demonstrating to clients our commitment to the Australian financial market.

“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."

He added: "[The 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.”

[Related: APRA revokes bank licence]