Barclays today announced that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has authorised Barclays Bank PLC to operate as a foreign authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) in Australia. Barclays Bank PLC Australia Branch is targeted to go-live as a foreign bank branch locally in April 2022.
Australia is an important part of Barclays’ growth plans in the region. Establishing the branch in Sydney is a key milestone in growing the bank’s client base and enabling it to deliver more to its Australian corporate and institutional clients.
“Australia presents tremendous growth opportunities and is an important financial services market in the region,” said Jaideep Khanna, Head of Barclays, Asia Pacific. “This foreign ADI license reinforces our commitment to Australia and enables us to proactively serve our clients with our global Corporate & Investment Bank platform, supporting their cross-border growth ambitions even further.”
Under the leadership of Richard Satchwell, Country CEO and Head of Investment Banking, Australia, Barclays has been a leader locally in the Australian leveraged finance market, successfully re-established its place amongst the strongest banks for offshore capital markets issuance and played an active role in offering innovative Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) solutions, as well as supporting key clients across their acquisition financing requirements. Richard will continue to lead Barclays’ Australia growth initiatives and build further upon the momentum with its local strategic partner, Barrenjoey Capital Partners.
“The ADI license granted to Barclays is an important step in demonstrating to clients our commitment to the Australian financial market,” added Richard Satchwell. “Barclays has built momentum steadily in our business over the past few years. 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 and has been providing global financing solutions to local clients. Barclays is a corporate and investment bank in Asia Pacific and is present in key markets including Australia, China/Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan and Singapore.