Barclays has pulled out of retail banking in the United Arab Emirates, selling that part of the bank to a local lender.
The retail arm, which serves 110,000 customers, is being sold to Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) for an estimated price of $177m.
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The UAE outfit is only the latest in a series of Barclays’ units to be sold or downscaled.
Barclays has also closed or shrunk operations in Gibraltar, India, Russia and Spain over recent years.
The lender announced it was closing its Gibraltarian retail unit in October 2013, laying off all but 14 staff and forcing the majority of its 17,000 existing clients to bank elsewhere, according to local media outlets.
Barclays partially withdrew from operations in India during December 2011, halting lending but continuing to accept deposits.
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By GlobalDataDuring February of the same year, Barclays announced that the bank was to sell its retail and commercial banking operations in Russia, less than three years after it paid $745m to acquire 32-branch-strong Expobank.
The lender said it had decided to concentrate on investment banking as it was unable to compete in the Russian market.
Following Citibank’s recent sale of its Spanish retail arm to Banco Popular, rumour has it that Barclays wishes to do the same in Spain and is trying to hire an investment bank to oversee the sale.
Related articles:
ADIB to purchase Barclays’ retail banking arm in UAE
Barclays withdraws retail operations from India
Barclays’ Russian retail retreat
