British banking behemoth Barclays has secured a licence from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to operate as a foreign authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) in the country.
As part of the move, Australia Branch is expected to go-live as a foreign bank branch locally in April 2022.
Barclays said it considers Australia as an important part of its growth plans in the region. Setting up a local branch is part of the plan to grow its Australian client by offering its services to more corporate and institutional clients.
Barclays head of Asia Pacific Jaideep Khanna said: “Australia presents tremendous growth opportunities and is an important financial services market in the region.
“This foreign ADI license 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.”
Barclays’ Australian operations are led by the country CEO and head of Investment Banking Richard Satchwell.
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By GlobalDataThe bank said that Satchwell will continue to head its growth initiatives in the country and accelerate further development in collaboration with the bank’s local strategic partner, Barrenjoey Capital Partners.
Satchwell commented: “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.
“Today’s news on the ADI license 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, five years after it shut down its funds management business in the country and returned the money invested in its funds to the unit-holders.
Recently, a report by Bloomberg said that the British lender was looking to add more local employees across its Singapore private banking business and Australian investment banking unit with the aim of growing its presence across Asia.