Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency
A branch of Barclays in London.
Unusually for a bank, Barclays has decided that it needs a little less capital. So to speak.
Beginning this week, the British firm is dropping the word “capital” from the name of its investment bank, as part of a broader initiative to unite its divisions under one brand. From now on, the firm’s various businesses will be united under the Barclays name.
So Barclays Capital? Just Barclays. Barclays Wealth? The same.
It’s something that the firm has been planning for some time. Robert E. Diamond Jr., Barclays’ chief executive, mentioned the “One Barclays” plan on a conference call with analysts last month.
“Barclays has traditionally been a loose confederation of businesses,” Jerry del Missier, co-chief executive of the firm’s corporate and investment banking, told CNBC on Monday afternoon. “This rebranding, dropping the capital, is a logical evolution.”
Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg NewsRobert E. Diamond Jr., chief of Barclays.(Even the e-mail addresses of Barclays investment banking professionals have changed to use the barclays.com domain name, instead of barclayscapital.com.)
The name change is only the latest for the unit, which had used the Barclays Capital name for 14 years. The modern-day incarnation of the business was formed when Barclays sold all but the debt-trading operation of its predecessor, BZW, in 1997.
It is a division that is closely linked to Mr. Diamond, who joined the firm in the summer of 1996. Under Mr. Diamond, a former Morgan Stanley executive, what became Barclays Capital — BarCap for short — has grown into a major investment bank.
Its most dramatic growth spurt came with the purchase of the core North American operations of Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008.