Barclays spent the past year converting sterling market dominance into genuinely differentiated outcomes for UK issuers, despite the most volatile rates backdrop since the Covid pandemic. A single, integrated banking and markets team allows the bank to pivot rapidly between currencies and formats, attracting new borrowers while keeping repeat clients active and diversified.
The franchise’s depth was most visible in financials. Barclays arranged US dollar additional tier-1 (AT1) for Lloyds Banking Group. Soon after, it delivered the tightest reset level yet achieved in the sterling AT1 market for Nationwide Building Society, underlining investor confidence in mutual names. Newcomers were also coaxed into wholesale funding: Newcastle Building Society and Schroders printed debut tier-two deals, while Co-op Bank obtained inaugural covered-bond funding – evidence of the Barclay’s ability to open fresh pockets of demand.
Barclays’ balance sheet support and structuring expertise proved pivotal for companies navigating strategic inflection points
In the corporate arena, Barclays’ balance sheet support and structuring expertise proved pivotal for companies navigating strategic inflection points. Centrica’s return to the bond market via a multicurrency hybrid that re-established the utility’s capital markets narrative, was led from conception to pricing by the bank. Harbour Energy likewise tapped Barclays when financing M&A, and a string of debut issuers from the UK water sector broadened sterling’s credit curve. Social housing borrowers continued to rely on Barclays for benchmark taps, benefiting from the firm’s read-across between primary and secondary desks.
The sovereign, supranational and agency desk capped the year with a marquee trade for HM Treasury’s Debt Management Office: a £11 billion July 2034 conventional gilt, the second-largest UK syndication on record, and a £110 billion orderbook despite election-related volatility. A subsequent £4.25 billion linker tap reinforced Barclays’ role as liquidity provider of choice in inflation-linked debt and underscored the breadth of its public-sector franchise.
