Barclays Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said the company has to defend its differentiators as technology companies such as Apple and Amazon encroach on the payments market.
According to news from Bloomberg, citing comments Barclays’ Jes Staley made at a panel discussion over the weekend, the CEO said there are major shifts underway in the payments market, fueled by technology innovations and the geopolitical environment.
“All the banks are very focused on the payments space. That may be where the battleground of finance is fought over the next 15 years,” Staley, said according to Bloomberg.
The executive believes the main concern for financial firms is cybersecurity and an extended reach of regulators. “A customer can come into Barclays and require us to download every piece of financial information for the last three years, and the issue is, ‘Who is this being downloaded to?’” Staley said. “The regulators have woken up. They are increasingly going to have to be governing who gets access to that data.”
Staley’s comments come at a time when the bank has been facing criticism and calls from shareholders to break up the company. Back in September, The Financial Times reported that when Barclays was moving to its new DIY investment website, which replaced its stockbroking service, customers complained they didn’t get their log-in details and that some transactions were missing from their accounts.
What’s more, customers were on hold for as long as an hour trying to get in touch with customer service representatives at the company. Other customers claimed that when they called customer service, it was closed, even though the bank said it would stay open for another hour. Because of this influx, Barclays had to move employees off the live chat feature to handle all the calls.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More