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Barclays PLC on Thursday said it has agreed a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management Ltd to growth the bank’s payment acceptance business and eventually to make it an independent company. The London-based lender’s payments acceptance business, previously know as merchant acquiring, processes payments for companies via cards, mobile phones, online, and contactless. Brookfield is part of Brookfield Asset Management Inc, a New York-based alternative asset manager with more than $1 trillion in assets under management. Barclays said it will invest about £400 million into the payments acceptance business, mostly during the first three years of the partnership, with Brookfield in an advisory role. After the third year, and up to the seventh anniversary of the partnership, Brookfield may buy up to 70% of the business and will be granted a further 10% for its help in the first three years. As a result, Brookfield would own 80%. Barclays said it expects to retain the remaining 20% of the payments business and continue to use it as the sole payment acceptance services provider to its clients for at least 10 years. The payments business will continue to use the Barclaycard Payment brand. Barclays said the agreement with Brookfield will have no material impact on its current financial guidance or targets. Matt Hammerstein, chief executive officer of Barclays UK Corporate Bank, said the deal is part of its three-year plan to become ‘a simpler, better and more balanced bank’. ‘We have a leading position in the UK, but we know that our payments clients are increasingly looking for integrated connectivity, an end-to-end service and tailored technological solutions from their payments providers,’ Hammerstein said. ‘Our partnership with Brookfield recognises the opportunity within our business to go beyond the foundations we have built to date.’ Barclays shares were down 0.5% at 276.70 pence in London late Thursday morning. Brookfield shares closed down 1.5% to $47.99 in New York on Wednesday. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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