. for items that may be pluralised as barclays see barclay disambiguation . barclays plc one churchill place barclays main headquarters in canary wharf london borough of tower hamlets type public limited company traded as lse barc nyse bcs industry banking financial services founded 17 november 1690 ; 325 years ago 1690 11 17 in city of london kingdom of england headquarters one churchill place canary wharf london england united kingdom area served worldwide key people john mcfarlane chairman jes staley group chief executive products retail banking commercial banking investment banking investment management revenue 25.454 billion 2015 1 operating income 2.073 billion 2015 1 profit 0.623 billion 2015 1 total assets 1.120 trillion 2015 1 total equity 65.864 billion 2015 1 number of employees 129 400 2016 2 divisions barclaycard barclays investment bank barclays wealth subsidiaries barclays africa group barclays bank website www.home.barclays www.archive.barclays.com barclays b rkliz is a british multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in london . it is a universal bank with operations in retail wholesale and investment banking as well as wealth management mortgage lending and credit cards . it has operations in over 50 countries and territories and has around 48 million customers . 3 barclays is organized into four core business personal & corporate personal banking corporate banking wealth & investment management barclaycard investment banking and africa . 4 barclays traces its origins to a goldsmith banking business established in the city of london in 1690 . 5 james barclay became a partner in the business in 1736 . in 1896 several banks in london and the english provinces including backhouse s bank and gurney s bank united as a joint stock bank under the name barclays and co. over the following decades barclays expanded to become a nationwide bank . in 1967 barclays deployed the world s first cash dispenser . barclays has made numerous corporate acquisitions including of london provincial and south western bank in 1918 british linen bank in 1919 mercantile credit in 1975 the woolwich in 2000 and the north american operations of lehman brothers in 2008 . barclays has a primary listing on the london stock exchange and is a constituent of the ftse 100 index . it has a secondary listing on the new york stock exchange . according to a 2011 paper by vitali et al. barclays was the most powerful transnational corporation in terms of ownership and thus corporate control over global financial stability and market competition with axa and state street corporation taking the 2nd and 3rd position respectively . 6 7 contents 1 history 1.1 1690 to 1900 1.2 1900 to 1945 1.3 1946 to 1980 1.4 1980 to 2000 1.5 21st century 1.5.1 abandoned merger with abn amro 1.5.2 financing 1.5.3 lehman brothers acquisition 1.5.4 2009 to present 2 operations 2.1 principal divisions and subsidiaries 2.2 branches and atms 2.3 senior management 2.3.1 executive committee 2.3.2 board of directors 3 sponsorships 4 controversies 4.1 involvement with south africa under apartheid 4.2 financial support for the government in zimbabwe 4.3 accusations of money laundering 4.4 senior management bonuses 4.5 tax avoidance 4.5.1 2012 tax repayment 4.6 conflicts of interest 4.7 customer satisfaction 4.8 rate fixing scandal 4.9 staff diversity 4.10 qatari capital raising regulatory investigations 4.11 us electricity market manipulation 4.12 gold price manipulation 4.13 us lawsuit alleging dark pool fraud 4.14 last look system . fx rigging 4.15 unsuitable mutual fund transactions 5 bibliography 6 see also 7 notes 8 references 9 external links history edit 1690 to 1900 edit barclays traces its origins back to 1690 when john freame a quaker and thomas gould started trading as goldsmith bankers in lombard street london . the name barclays became associated with the business in 1736 when james barclay the son in law of john freame one of the founders became a partner in the business . 8 in 1728 the bank moved to 54 lombard street identified by the sign of the black spread eagle which in subsequent years would become a core part of the bank s visual identity . 9 much of the weatlh of the barclays family was founded in the slave trade . david and alexander barclay were engange in the slave trade in 1756 as eric williams writes in slavery and capitalism . david barclay was not merely a slave trader but actually owned a great plantation in jamaica where we are told he freed his slaves and lived to find that the black skin enclosed hearts full of gratitude and minds as capable of improvement as the proudest white . 10 in 1776 the firm was styled barclay bevan and bening and so remained until 1785 when another partner john tritton who had married a barclay was admitted and the business then became barclay bevan bening and tritton . 11 in 1896 several banks in london and the english provinces notably backhouse s bank of darlington 12 and gurney s bank of norwich united under the banner of barclays and co. a joint stock bank . 13 1900 to 1945 edit the barclays bank branch in sutton london which was originally a branch of london and provincial prior to acquisition by barclays between 1905 and 1916 barclays extended its branch network by making acquisitions of small english banks . further expansion followed in 1918 when barclays amalgamated with the london provincial and south western bank and in 1919 when the british linen bank was acquired by barclays bank although the british linen bank retained a separate board of directors and continued to issue its own bank notes see banknotes of the pound sterling . 14 in 1925 the colonial bank national bank of south africa and the anglo egyptian bank were amalgamated and barclays operated its overseas operations under the name barclays bank dominion colonial and overseas barclays dco . 15 in 1938 barclays acquired the first indian exchange bank the central exchange bank of india which had opened in london in 1936 with the sponsorship of central bank of india . 16 1946 to 1980 edit in may 1958 barclays was the first uk bank to appoint a female bank manager . hilda harding managed barclays hanover square branch in london until her retirement in 1970 . 17 a plaque in enfield united kingdom commemorating the installation of the world s first cash machine by barclays in 1967 in 1965 barclays established a us affiliate barclays bank of california in san francisco . 18 19 barclays launched the first credit card in the uk barclaycard in 1966 . on 27 june 1967 barclays deployed the world s first cash machine in enfield . 20 21 the british actor reg varney was the first person to use the machine . 21 in 1969 a planned merger with martins bank and lloyds bank was blocked by the monopolies and mergers commission but the acquisition of martins bank on its own was later permitted . also that year the british linen bank subsidiary was sold to the bank of scotland in exchange for a 25 % stake a transaction that became effective from 1971 . barclays dco changed its name to barclays bank international in 1971 . 15 in august 1975 following the secondary banking crash barclays acquired mercantile credit company . 22 1980 to 2000 edit in 1980 barclays bank international expanded its business to include commercial credit and took over american credit corporation renaming it barclays american corporation . 23 the following year barclays bank and barclays bank international merged and as part of the corporate reorganization the former barclays bank plc became a group holding company renamed barclays plc and uk retail banking was integrated under the former bbi and renamed barclays bank plc from barclays bank limited . 15 in 1986 barclays sold its south african business operating under the barclays national bank name after protests against barclays involvement in south africa and its apartheid government . also that year barclays bought de zoete & bevan and wedd durlacher formerly wedd jefferson 24 to form barclays de zoete wedd bzw now known as the barclays investment bank and to take advantage of the big bang on the london stock exchange . 25 barclays introduced the connect card in june 1987 the first debit card in the united kingdom . 26 27 in 1988 barclays sold barclays bank of california which at that time was the 17th largest bank in california measured by assets to wells fargo for us 125 million in cash . 28 edgar pearce the mardi gra bomber began a terror campaign against the bank and the supermarket chain sainsbury s in 1994 . 29 in 1996 barclays bought wells fargo nikko investment advisors wfnia and merged it with bzw investment management to form barclays global investors . 30 two years later in 1998 the bzw business was broken up and parts were sold to credit suisse first boston barclays retained the debt business which formed the foundation of what is now barclays capital . 31 in 1999 in an unusual move as part of the trend at the time for free isps barclays launched an internet service called barclays.net this entity was acquired by british telecom in 2001 . 32 in august 2000 barclays took over the recently de mutualised woolwich plc formerly the woolwich building society 33 in a 5.4 bn acquisition . woolwich plc thus joined the barclays group of companies and the woolwich name was retained after the acquisition . the company s head office remained in bexleyheath south east london four miles from the original head office in woolwich . 34 21st century edit a barclays branch in stratford upon avon united kingdom in 2001 barclays closed 171 branches in the uk many of them in rural communities barclays called itself the big bank but this name was quickly given a low profile after a series of embarrassing pr stunts . 35 in 2003 barclays bought the american credit card company juniper bank from cibc re branding it as barclays bank delaware . 36 the same year saw the acquisition of banco zaragozano the 11th largest spanish bank . 37 barclays took over sponsorship of the premier league from barclaycard in 2004 . 38 in may 2005 barclays moved its group headquarters from lombard street in the city of london to one churchill place in canary wharf . also in 2005 barclays sealed a 2.6 bn takeover of absa group limited south africa s largest retail bank acquiring a 54 % stake on 27 july 2005 . 39 then in 2006 barclays purchased the homeq servicing corporation for us 469 million in cash from wachovia corp. 40 that year also saw the acquisition of the financial website comparetheloan 41 and barclays announcing plans to rebrand woolwich branches as barclays migrating woolwich customers onto barclays accounts and migrating back office processes onto barclays systems the woolwich brand was to be used for barclays mortgages . 42 in january 2007 barclays announced that it had purchased the naming rights to the barclays center a proposed 18 000 seat arena in brooklyn new york where the new jersey nets planned to relocate . 43 abandoned merger with abn amro edit in march 2007 barclays announced plans to merge with abn amro the largest bank in the netherlands . 44 45 however on 5 october 2007 barclays announced that it had abandoned its bid 46 citing inadequate support by abn shareholders . fewer than 80 % of shares had been tendered to barclays cash and shares offer . 47 this left the consortium led by royal bank of scotland free to proceed with its us 99.9 cents counter bid for abn amro . 48 to help finance its bid for abn amro barclays sold a 3.1 % stake to china development bank and a 3 % stake to temasek holdings the investment arm of the singaporean government . 49 also in 2007 barclays agreed to purchase equifirst corporation from regions financial