Barclays Plc - Digital transformation strategies

Barclays Plc - Digital transformation strategies

Summary

This report provides insight into Barclays's fintech activities, including its digital transformation strategies, its innovation programs, its technology initiatives, its estimated ICT budget, and its major ICT contracts.

Barclays Plc (Barclays) is a global financial services provider offering personal and business banking, wholesale and commercial banking, and private and investment banking solutions to individuals, SMEs, corporates, and high-net-worth clients. Its offers include deposits and accounts, payment cards, personal and commercial loans, and investment solutions. Barclays also offers services such as foreign exchange, investment banking, transactional lending, mobile banking, premier banking, brokerage, research and analysis, international banking, and online banking. Barclays caters to a diverse client base, which consists of retail customers, small to medium-sized enterprises, and large corporates. It operates across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas.

The Barclays Experimentation Hub is a business and technology sandbox-as-a-service offering that enables business units across the globe to rapidly test and evaluate third-party vendor solutions, while also providing a platform to influence industry through collaborative events and hackathons. Since 2022 the Experimentation Hub has enabled Barclays to explore new technologies such as Generative AI, while also bringing together industry experts across topics such as digital currencies – exploring the application and business benefits of key innovations within technology and fintech. Experimentation has also supported Barclays teams in keeping pace with the rapidly changing landscape within ESG technologies and will continue to support Barclays' Climate Goals throughout 2024.

Launched in April 2018, Barclays UK Ventures focuses on establishing partnerships and acquiring equity stakes in fintech companies. The unit works to identify, incubate, and scale new ideas as per customers’ needs. Through this unit, the bank aims to build a dedicated team of technologists, developers, and entrepreneurs. Key technology focuses for the unit include artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robo-advice.

Scope

Barclays has been investing in emerging technologies over the years to improve efficiencies, product offerings, and streamline operations. The company’s initiatives such as migration to the cloud, leveraging its digital channels and solutions, and automation of redundant tasks enabled it to better reach out to customers. Barclays launched the Plan & Invest digital investment service, which offers personalized investment solutions for customers.

Barclays has embarked on a digital transformation journey by taking advantage of PSD2 and open banking regulations to provide customers with innovative products and services from secure and regulated third-party providers. By leveraging its APIs, the bank is providing fintech startups with access to customers’ financial information to develop new easy-to-use and frictionless digital services across a range of touchpoints.

Barclays is focusing on enhancing its expertise in AI to offer better products and enhance business processes. It has been actively leveraging AI in key areas such as payments, fraud detection and prevention, and onboarding customers. It is increasingly using transactional and customer data to generate meaningful insights and offer personalized products. The bank employs technologies such as predictive analytics for risk modelling, natural language processing for voice recognition and authentication, and AI detection tools for fraud prevention and monitoring unauthorized access to sensitive information.

Barclays has been investing in building digital infrastructure to improve operations and reach out to its customers. As part of its enterprise-wide digitalization strategy, the bank has migrated Barclays iPortal from a legacy physical infrastructure to the cloud to enable resilience and operational efficiency. Similarly, it is investing in blockchain to enable digital smart contracts and increase transparency and traceability of transactions.

Reasons to Buy

• Gain insights into Barclays' tech operations.
• Gain insights into its tech strategies and innovation initiatives.
• Gain insights into its technology themes under focus.
• Gain insights into various product launches, partnerships, and investment strategies.