British bank Barclays said it aims to have 200,000 French retail customers in the medium term, as it continues to focus on organic growth against the backdrop of its bid battle for Dutch bank ABN AMRO.
Barclays Plc, Britain's third biggest bank by stock market value, launched a product this month aimed at boosting its share of the fiercely competitive French retail bank market.
The new product offers a current account earnings interest of 10 percent over a three month period. After three months, the interest rate returns to the standard rate of 3 percent.
"We're a medium sized bank in France but we're growing fast. We want to be discovered by more French customers," Barclays Bank France managing director Pascal Roch‚ told Reuters.
The French retail bank market is dominated by domestic players such as Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Caisse d'Epargne.
Barclays currently has 150,000 French individual retail bank customers and has mainly affluent clients. It has been present in France since 1917 and has 54 branches in the country often catering to expatriate British customers.
Roch‚ said Barclays wanted to have 200,000 French individual retail bank customers "within the medium term" and nearly to double its turnover by organic growth in France in four years time. He added that the relatively high interest rate offering of 10 percent was to boost its customers' spending power.
Comments
Comments are closed.