Barclaycard
Barclaycard
Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Credit cards |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Headquarters | London , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Credit cards Contactless technology |
| Parent | Barclays |
| Website | www.home.barclaycard [13] |
Barclaycard (/ˈbɑːrklikɑːrd, -leɪ-/; stylized as barclaycard) is a multinational credit card and payment services provider, and a division of Barclays plc. As of 2010, Barclaycard had over ten million customers in the United Kingdom.[1]
Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Credit cards |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Headquarters | London , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Credit cards Contactless technology |
| Parent | Barclays |
| Website | www.home.barclaycard [13] |
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 October 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 intended 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
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]