Barclays India not to give fresh retail loans

Barclays India, which has been rejigging its operations, today said it is freezing the retail business in the country, a move that comes a day after it sold nearly half of its credit card business to StanChart India.

"As part of our decision to consolidate and build a sustained profitable Indian business based on our competitive strengths globally, we have decided to not book new retail loans here.

"However, we will continue to maintain our deposit business, while focusing on wealth management, large corporates and investment banking services. All the existing loans will, of course, continue as normal," Barclays India spokesperson told PTI through an email.

Yesterday, StanChart India had said that the it bought 1.6 lakh of the 2-lakh standard credit card portfolio of Barclays for an undisclosed sum.

But the bank said it bought cards at a huge discount to the book value of Rs 175 crore. Barclays, which did not confirm the deal officially, has around 3 lakh customers under its credit card business.

The plan to quit the retail business will see at least 150 people getting the pink slip, according to a Barclays insider. This comes four months after Barclays, which is fighting to revive profitability, sacked 50 people here following its decision to merge the sales team of its commercial and investment banking units.

The latest job cuts will represent about 17 per cent of the bank's remaining 850 employees in the country, said the source.

It can be noted that Barclays, which will keep its branch network to satisfy the RBI requirement, is not alone in paring down its retail business. The Royal Bank of Scotland is awaiting RBI permission since July 2010 to sell its retail business to HSBC. RBS has 31 branches here.