Barclays

Your savings are safe; your access has been patchier

Barclays is a well-capitalised bank, and UK deposits at Barclays Bank UK PLC are protected by the FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary to £120,000 per person. The CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary was 14.3% at 30 June 2026, two points above its 12.2% requirement, and its liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary averaged 157.7%. The weaker points are elsewhere: a long run of fines tied mostly to its investment bank, and a three-day IT failure in early 2025. We score it 76/100.

Two banks under one name

Since January 2019 UK law has required Barclays to keep its high-street bank separate from its investment bank. Current accounts, savings and mortgages sit in Barclays Bank UK PLC, the ring-fenced bank. Trading, corporate lending outside the UK, Barclaycard US and some international businesses sit in Barclays Bank PLC.

Tesco Bank now sits on the ring-fenced side too. Barclays bought Tesco's banking business, and on 1 November 2024 its credit cards, loans and savings moved into Barclays Bank UK PLC through a court-approved transfer. Tesco Bank is now a trading name of that bank, so the two brands share one FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary limit.

That split shows up in the ratings:

	Moody's	S&P	Fitch
Barclays Bank UK PLC	A1 (deposits)	A	AA-
Barclays PLC (holding company)	Baa1	BBB	A

The holding company's lower ratings reflect the size and swings of investment banking, which accounts for about half of the group's risk-weighted assets. The ring fence means a loss in the trading arm should not drain the bank where your salary lands.

Capital and liquidity

Barclays' 12.2% CET1CET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary requirement includes a 2.7% Pillar 2A add-on set by the Prudential Regulation Authority and a 1.5% buffer for being a G-SIBG-SIBA global systemically important bank: one of the large banks the Financial Stability Board lists each year because its failure could harm the world economy.More in the glossary in bucket 2. The bank targets 13% to 14% and ran slightly above that in mid-2026 while still announcing £2.3 billion of dividends and buybacks for the half-year.

Liquidity is a real strength. The group's liquidity pool was £346.7 billion at 30 June 2026, and it lent out only about 75 pence for every pound of deposits. Barclays UK alone held £245.6 billion of customer deposits, of which £194.5 billion came from retail customers, the stickiest funding a bank can have.

Fines and redress in the last ten years

• March 2018: $2 billion civil penalty to the US Justice Department over the sale of mortgage-backed securities before 2008.
• September 2022: $361 million to the SEC, including a $200 million penalty, after selling about $17.7 billion more securities than it had registered.
• July 2025: £42 million from the FCA for failing to manage money-laundering risks at two clients, Stunt & Co and the investment firm WealthTek. Barclays also made a voluntary £6.3 million payment to WealthTek's clients.

Barclays is also paying redress under the FCA's motor finance compensation scheme for commission arrangements in car loans, and added £105 million to its provision for it in early 2026. Its 2008 fundraising from Qatari investors also produced years of legal and regulatory cases in the UK. Individually these cases did not touch depositors' money, but together they explain a conduct score of 50.

The 2025 payday outage

From Friday 31 January to Sunday 2 February 2025, a software problem in Barclays' UK mainframe left many customers unable to log in to the app or online banking, and a majority of those who did get in had trouble making payments. It hit at month-end, when salaries and bills move. Barclays later said it expected to pay £5 million to £7.5 million in compensation.

How to protect yourself as a Barclays customer

1. Keep no more than £120,000 per person at Barclays Bank UK PLC, counting any Tesco Bank savings in the same total. Money you hold in a Barclays Bank PLC product, for example some international or offshore accounts, falls under a different scheme or none.
2. Keep a second account at an unconnected bank, such as HSBC or Santander UK, with a debit card that works. It is the simplest protection against a weekend outage.
3. If an outage costs you money, claim from Barclays first, then take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
4. Turn on app notifications for every payment. Since October 2024 UK banks must generally refund authorised push payment scam victims up to £85,000, but you need to report quickly.

How we scored it

Liquidity (90) and deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary (88) are Barclays' best factors. Digital security (65) is pulled down by the 2025 outage, and conduct (50) is the weakest factor because of repeated fines across the UK and US. For a younger UK alternative with a different risk profile, see Revolut.