Barclays underserved markets

Presented by: Abhishek Gomber MBA IB Sem-IV

Introduction
Barclays is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. As of 2010 it was the world's 10th-largest banking and financial services group and 21st-largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine. It has operations in over 50 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America and around 48 million customers. Barclays is a universal bank and is organised within two business 'clusters': Corporate & Investment Banking and Wealth Management (CIBWM), and Retail & Business Banking (RBB). The Corporate & Investment Banking and Wealth Management cluster comprises three business units: Barclays Capital(investment banking), Barclays Corporate (commercial banking) and Barclays Wealth (wealth management). The Retail & Business Banking cluster comprises four business units: Barclaycard (credit card and loan provision), Barclays Africa, UK Retail Banking and Western Europe Retail Banking.

Underserved Market
In a strict business sense, an Underserved Market represents a bona fide business opportunity which has been inadvertently overlooked by a profit-oriented business enterprise without regard to race, ethnicity or gender. Theoretically, once a profit-oriented business discovers such an overlooked opportunity, it may choose to create additional profit for itself by marketing its goods and services to the previously underserved market. However, the industry attempts to redefine the term "Underserved Market" to include protected minorities and women who exhibit highrisk, low-profit behaviour, some of whom reside in lower-income, high crime urban areas. Through their definition of this term, the quota industry attempts to portray profit-oriented businesses as racists who refuse to do business for discriminatory, racist reasons. In Clinton/Gore-speak, to describe a geographic area or group as an "Underserved Market" is to say that rational, profit-oriented businesses have avoided such markets for reasons of racism. This Clinton/Gore definition of the term avoids any discussion of the low-profit, bad-credit, high-risk nature of these "Underserved Markets".

Barclays hopes to support around 400,000 disadvantaged people in 11 countries in Africa, South America and Asia enter the economic mainstream. The approach that Barclays is promoting is the interest on repayments is ploughed back into a central fund for future loans or shared out among members, rather than disappearing into the pockets of private providers. Because the loans are owned and managed by the community itself, the cost of lending is much lower. We are working in partnership with these NGOs as they have the relationships and expertise in these countries. From the outset, the project was not designed for the bank to tour its services to new customers says Wong. This is supporting people to develop the skills they need to make real sustainable changes in their communities This learning, will inform not only Barclays, but other banks, NGOs and eventually governments on how to deliver financial inclusion programmes that are not only driven by social and business benefits, but are also sustainable development solutions in the long run.

The bank is committed to continuing carbon reductions, through work on its data centres and sustainable building design, with achievement of the ISO14001 Environmental Management System extended to include the Barclays Capital & Wealth operations in Birmingham, Moscow, Singapore and New York. In 2010, Barclays purchased 1,192,000 carbon credits from projects in Brazil, China, India, South Korea, Tanzania, Kenya and Thailand