PESTEL analysis for Bank Barclays - Essay Example

History of the Barclays Bank The history of the bank can be tracked down to the year 1690 when two persons named John Feame and Thomas Gould commenced trading in Lombard Street of London basically as goldsmith bankers. In the year 1736, James Barclay became a part of the operation and since then the name Barclays has been related with the bank, however, only in the year 1896 the company got its name as Barclays Bank. Barclays expanded it’s tentacles in business by acquiring a number of smaller operations in all these years and expanded its business all over the UK and worldwide (Financial Advice, n.d.).

In the year 1925, the international operations of the bank gained acceleration after the mergers with Colonial Bank, National Bank of South Africa and Anglo Egyptian Bank. The year 1961 saw the opening of the bank’s first computer operated branch in London on Drummond Street. In 1966, the UK got its first credit card which was launched by the Barclays Bank. The first bank to make use of advertising in the television was also the Barclays in 1972. The bank has also tied up with Post Office Ltd.

to spread out its services in personal banking, particularly in the sector of unsecured and secured loans. The Barclays Bank is spread over 50 countries and attends to 27 million customers (The Origin of, 2008). PESTEL Analysis of the Banking Industry Political Analysis Banks in the UK are trying to draw on research performed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the study shows that rigid rules in the banking industry will drain a sum of ?1tn from the financial system. As a result of which the businesses and the households would be deprived of any form of credit and loans.

The regulatory changes that are being made in 2011 would require the banks to keep larger capital cushions (Treanor, 2010). The “Big Four” banks in the UK that have resisted radical shake-up calls in their business after the announcement of the bank reform report are Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC. The expected subsidiarisation model states that allocation of capital has to be made to different country operations and units by the bank. This would eventually pressurise the top lenders of the UK for new capital requirements (Reuters, 2011).

Economic Analysis Banking sectors are the basic providers of financial services. Therefore, the factors such as tax, inflation rate and interest rates have strong influence. According to the latest information it has been discovered that the banks in the UK that deals in loan primarily would be discussing about the prospects of expected investments by the tax payers, with the concerned authorities (Economy Watch, 2011). The UK is within the top 30 rich countries with the UK’s GDP per capita being $37,400.

Out of which the contribution of the financial sector remains to be the highest being 76.2% of GDP (Economy Watch, 2011). Social Analysis Demographics influence the banking industry to a great extent. The factors that are having a significant impact in relation to banking sector are mortgage, living standard, total