ABN AMRO and Barclays announce agreement on terms of merger

Operating in over 50 countries and employing 123,000 people, we move, lend, invest and protect money for over 27 million customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays PLC has six major businesses.

UK Banking delivers banking products and services to over 14 million retail customers and 780,000 businesses in the UK.

Barclaycard is one of the leading credit card businesses in Europe, and has 9.8 million UK customers and 6.4 million international cards in issue.

Barclays International Retail and Commercial Banking operations have over 2 million international clients, in geographies which currently include France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, India, Africa and the Middle East. Absa has an additional 8.3 million retail customers in South Africa.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division, provides corporate, institutional and government clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs.

Barclays Global Investors is one of the world's largest asset managers and a leading provider of investment management products and services. Total assets under management at 31st December 2006 were $1.8 trillion.

Barclays Wealth serves affluent, high net worth and intermediary clients worldwide, providing private banking, asset management, stockbroking, offshore banking, wealth structuring and financial planning services. At 31st December 2006, total client assets were £93.0 billion. - Source: Barclays Press