Branches given £1bn facelift as Barclays chases new customers

Banking giant Barclays this week said it planned to spend £1bn on boosting customer service across its global retail banking business by 2013.

The firm is to spend about 250m a year on improvements including branch overhauls in the UK as well as investing more in technology, such as mobile banking.

Barclays has retail banking operations in 21 markets, although 39 per cent of its 1.8bn global profits from the division last year were generated in the UK, where 15 million of its 37 million customers are based.

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The bank, which has revamped about half of its 1,700 UK branches so far, has seen growth in current account share more than double at modernised branches compared to those areas still awaiting investment.

The group also plans to add up to four million retail banking customers by 2013 with expansion in countries including Spain, Portugal and affluent cities in northern Italy.

Barclays wants to secure top five positions in all 21 markets.

The bank said it was looking for "depth, not breadth" in retail banking, which employs 66,000 staff globally and accounted for just over a third of its underlying 5.2bn in annual profits last year.

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The division is headed by former Barclaycard chief Anthony Jenkins following the surprise ousting of previous boss Fritz Seegers last year.

In March, the bank took a 100m hit to quit retail banking in Indonesia as it also scaled back operations in India, Pakistan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.