“How does a 330-year-old universal bank modernise its corporate and consumer financial infrastructure through selective fintech partnerships while defending its full-service banking licence across UK, US, and international markets?”
Barclays is one of the world's oldest and largest universal banks, operating across personal banking, corporate banking, investment banking, and wealth management globally. It has increasingly invested in digital and embedded finance capabilities — most visibly through Barclaycard's merchant services and cash advance products, a US consumer bank built around co-branded credit cards, and enterprise-grade FX and trade-finance platforms for corporates. The bank has pursued a strategy of selectively partnering with fintechs (Amount for BNPL, Trade Ledger for working capital) rather than building all capabilities in-house, while also developing proprietary digital identity infrastructure (Barclays Verify).
Barclays processes payments through Barclaycard Payments (self-operated) and Barclaycard Business Cash Advance (self-operated).
Barclays's cards are issued through Barclays (self-operated).
Barclays uses Barclays FX (self-operated) for FX and cross-border payouts.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 4 layers in Barclays's stack: Payments / PSP (Barclaycard Payments (self-operated) and Barclaycard Business Cash Advance (self-operated)); Card issuing (Barclays (self-operated)); Lending (Barclaycard Business Cash Advance (merchant cash advance), Co-branded credit cards (UK and US), POS installment loans / BNPL (powered by Amount, US), White-label BNPL for merchants (Amount) and 2 others); FX & payouts (Barclays FX (self-operated)).
Barclays is founded in 1690 and headquartered in 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP, United Kingdom.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Barclays and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.