Barclaycard

Barclaycard
Subsidiary
Industry Credit cards
Founded 1966 (1966)
Headquarters London, England, United Kingdom
Area served
 Worldwide
Products Credit cards
Contactless technology
Parent Barclays
Website www.home.barclaycard

Barclaycard (/ˈbɑːrklikɑːrd, -leɪ-/; stylized as barclaycard) is a multinational credit card and payment services provider, and a division of Barclays plc. Barclaycard has over ten million customers in the United Kingdom.[1]

History

Barclaycard was launched on 29 June 1966, initially as a charge card,[2] but following Bank of England agreement to the offering of revolving credit it became the first credit card in the United Kingdom on 8 November 1967.[2] It enjoyed a monopoly of the credit card market in the United Kingdom, until the introduction of the Access card in 1972.[2]

Barclaycard was not the first payment card to be issued in the United Kingdom though; Diners Club and American Express launched their charge cards in 1962 and 1963 respectively.[3][2]

Barclaycard was originally a BankAmericard licensee, and became part of the Visa network on its formation in 1975.[2]

Acquisitions

Providian

In July 2003, Barclaycard took over the United Kingdom wing of the American Company Providian National Bank, known as Monument, when it was sold off due to financial irregularities of its American parent company.[4] Barclaycard sold the Monument business and premises to Compucredit in April 2007.[5]

Egg

In March 2011, Barclays announced that it would be buying the British credit card business arm of Egg from Citigroup for an undisclosed price. At the time of the announcement, Barclays claimed that the credit card assets consisted of 1.15 million accounts with approximately £2.3bn of gross receivables.[6]

They intend to integrate those customers within their own credit card arm. At the time of the announcement, Citi said it was "committed to working with Barclays on a seamless transfer of the customer accounts, ensuring continuation of the high level of service to which customers are accustomed".[7]

Analog Analytics

In June 2012, Barclaycard acquired Analog Analytics, a digital coupon and daily deal business similar to Groupon.[8][9]

The Logic Group

During September 2014, it was announced that Barclaycard was to acquire The Logic Group,[10] a based payment and loyalty business based within the United Kingdom. The procurement would enable Barclaycard’s clients to benefit from The Logic Group’s single platform transaction processing capabilities, alongside data insights which would allow merchants to better target their services to customers.

Toward the end of 2014, Barclaycard confirmed that the acquisition had since been completed.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "General News UK: npower: Barclaycard Freedom Scheme Customers to Receive Boost from npower". © 2010 Newsdesk AB. 2010-03-15. Archived from the original on 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2014-01-10.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 http://www.accesscreditcard.info/history66-72.aspx
  3. ↑ "1963: American Express comes to Britain". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Thu, 24 Jul 2003 (24 July 2003). "Barclays picks EHS for £5m Providian job | Archive". Marketing Week. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  5. ↑ "Business | Barclays sells sub-prime business". BBC News. 5 April 2007. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  6. ↑ Reuters (1 March 2011). "Barclays to buy Egg credit card | Business | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  7. ↑ "BBC News - Egg credit cards bought by Barclays bank". Bbc.co.uk. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  8. ↑ Bigelow, Bruce. "Barclaycard Acquires Social Couponing Startup Analog Analytics". www.xconomy.com. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Kamanec, Kara. "Barclays Group PLC Member, Barclaycard, Purchases Analog Analytics". www.dailydealmedia.com. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Barclaycard to acquire payment and loyalty specialist The Logic Group".
  11. ↑ "Barclaycard to acquire The Logic Group".


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