Barclays 2015 Annual Report Download - page 21

home.barclays/annualreport Barclays PLC Annual Report 2015 I 19
Review of the year
2015 was a transformational year for PCB. We continued to support
growth in the communities in which we operate, helping 17,600 people
take their first steps onto the property ladder, lending £3.6bn in
Barclayloans and launching a £150m fund to support fast growing
technology businesses in the UK.
By innovating and harnessing technology, we are able to provide simple
and relevant solutions for our customers and clients. We launched
Barclays Blue Rewards providing customers with a simple and inclusive
digital rewards proposition, paying cash every month, to recognise and
reward their relationship with us. We also created the FX powered by
Barclays app, giving users an information-only tool to compare up to the
second FX rates and margins.
We continued to use technology to make customers’ lives easier in a
number of UK banking firsts. Over 60,000 cheques, totalling over £55m,
were processed as digital images through our Mobile Cheque Imaging
pilot and through the partnership between Pingit and Camelot, we were
able to create the first new payment option for the National Lottery in
over a decade.
We were the first UK bank to launch Video Banking, allowing customers
to securely carry out their banking through a digital face to face service
with our expert colleagues. Our Serve Anywhere iPad technology
enabled colleagues to access customer systems remotely in an industry
first for any UK retail bank.
We made significant progress in de-risking the business and made a
strategic decision to sell Barclays Wealth Americas and transformed the
Wealth business with a focus on simplification and innovation in markets
where we can compete at scale. In 2015, we were awarded Wealth
Manager of the Year at the Global Investor Awards.
We continued to work towards our ambition to become the most
inclusive and accessible bank in 2015, reaching over 4,000 Talking ATMs,
being the first bank to launch a Sign Video service and launching the
Community Driving Licence – a modularised colleague training app to
better understand the needs of different customer circumstances.
We are firmly committed to leaving no-one behind as we enter into the
digital revolution, with our network of over 15,000 UK Digital Eagles
supporting customers and non-customers to build their confidence in
digital skills. In 2015 alone, they hosted almost 5,000 Tea and Teach
sessions helping those taking their first steps to get online, more than
1,000 Code Playgrounds teaching young people and their parents to
code and over 250 Digital Business Clubs supporting small businesses in
taking advantage of the opportunities new technology brings. We also
continued to help the next generation secure employment and manage
their finances more effectively, with the number of young people
participating in our LifeSkills programme since 2013 reaching over
1.8 million and almost 3,000 colleagues volunteering to run LifeSkills
sessions last year.
Barclaycard
“We continue to build on our heritage of
innovation, offering a range of market
leading solutions to help consumers make
and retailers take payments.”
Amer Sajed
Interim Chief Executive,
Barclaycard
Delighting our customers with free
access to credit scores and education
When Barclaycard US discovered that more than 60% of the US
population does not check their credit score regularly, they realised just
how far this was impacting their everyday decisions from renting an
apartment to getting a new mobile phone contract. The team made
enhancements to their mobile app and servicing website to give
customers their FICO® Credit Score; top two key factors affecting it;
along with related information for customers to keep in mind.
Over three million cardholders in the US are now proactively viewing
their FICO® scores with about 60% accessing it monthly and around
35% using our mobile app. Lower rates of delinquency have been
observed in customers taking advantage of the service.
Based on the positive feedback and engagement from our customers
in the US, a similar initiative with a local partner has since been taken
up in the UK with free credit score checks for all our UK customers too.
®FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the US and other countries.
Barclaycard
Contribution to the Group 2015 2014
Income (£m) 4,927 4,356
Profit before tax (£m) 1,634 1,339
Adjusted RoE (%) 17.7% 16.0%
Risk Weighted Assets (£bn) 41.3 39.9
BUSINESS SEGMENT PERFORMANCE
Risk review Financial review Financial statements Shareholder information