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16. Barclays Bank

• Head of IT: Nitin Bhargava, Head of IT
• Industry: Financial services
• Website: www.barclays.co.uk

The revenues and spending plans, especially on bonuses, of banks has never come under such close scrutiny as in the last 18 months. But where other banks had to run to governments or carry out hasty M&A activity to shore up their foundations, Barclays has looked healthy. Its Wealth division had funds spare in the early part of 2010 to invest in IT, spending £230 million on new infrastructure.

In February 2010 Barclays Capital announced that its integration of the failed Lehman Brothers US operations was complete.

As with most other companies in the sector, 2009 was a year of operational consolidation and rationalisation for Barclays and saw the firm announce that 700 IT staff would be laid off over the year. But there was other, more positive action too, with the July re-launch of its online banking website that followed on from a revamped mobile site launched earlier in the year. The web is clearly a major focus with Barclays saying that it also plans new online credit card management services. Barclays was a pioneer of online banking in the UK.

Despite the layoffs, Barclays took two major IT operations back in house as it decided not to renew contracts with Accenture and Getronics for application development and PC management respectively.

The web remains a major focus with Barclays saying that it also plans new online credit card management services. Barclays was a pioneer of online banking in the UK.

On the negative side, investment wing Barclays Capital suffered a fine from the FSA for data reporting errors and Barclays also suffered a disk array failure that led to interrupted website and ATM services.

In February of 2009, Bob Rickert, CIO of global retail and commercial banking, stood down after three years at the group.

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