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Barclays PLC on Monday said it has completed the sale of its German consumer finance business, Consumer Bank Europe, to BAWAG PSK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BAWAG Group AG. The UK lender said the disposal, which was announced last July, was at a small premium to tangible book value. The sale is estimated to release around €4.0 billion of risk weighted assets, increasing Barclays’ CET1 ratio by around 10bps from 13.8% reported at September 30. Barclays said the agreement is in line with the ambition to ‘simplify Barclays’ and support the focus on growing its key businesses, outlined at its investor update in February 2024. The business sold is a diversified retail banking business, with established credit card, consumer loan and deposit franchises serving customers in the German and Austrian markets. As at March 31 2024, it had gross assets of €4.7 billion, primarily comprising card and loan receivables. Francesco Ceccato, chief executive, Barclays Europe, said: ‘I’m grateful to everyone who has worked to finalise the deal, including the BAWAG senior executive team and our teams in Consumer Bank Europe. Barclays Europe will now focus on supporting our institutional, corporate and high net worth clients, where we continue to see significant growth potential.’ BAWAG Group AG is Vienna-based bank, the fourth largest lender in Austria. Shares in Barclays were 2.0% lower at 291.20 pence each in London on Monday morning. The wider FTSE 100 was down 1.2%. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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