The soon-to-be new owner of Barclays in Portugal, Spain’s Bankinter, wants to keep both the Barclays outlets and the workforce, according to the current Barclays management.
The issue of staff and the possible rebranding of Barclays was raised at a meeting between unions and Barclays bank officials in advance of Bankinter taking over the network of 1,000 staff servicing 84 branches in Portugal.
Mário Mourao of Portugal’s bank workers union said that he has been assured that the current union agreements will be maintained and that there will be no reduction in staff levels.
Bankinter's plans are said to involve reorganising the Portuguese business rather than restructuring it but the unions still want to schedule another meeting, this time with Bankinter's management when it has signed the paperwork and paid the €100 million sale price.
As Barclays is British the deal will not be held up by any competition authority concerns.
Spain’s Bankinter announced last Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with Barclays Bank to buy its branch network Portugal for €100 million. This represents a loss for Barclays of around €272 million but fits in well with its mission to shed unprofitable businesses.
Barclays in Portugal rode high in the crest of the property boom but as much of its business was tied to property transactions, it has suffered deeply throughout the current recession.
Comments
We must remember for example that Santander is specifically running its UK arm under British regs "Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority"
http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/website-legal
as Barclays in Portugal was.
Or is Barclays UK cunningly assuming that its UK oriented customers will set up, if they have not already, internet euro accounts with them. From these pay direct debits for any regular bills and carry on as before over the internet ?
Certainly it would not be anything to boast about for Bankinter to trumpet that Barclays pt now follow the Bank of Portugal's regulatory regime ! As most customers would migrate!