Brief

H/Advisors Cicero has provided public affairs support for Barclays since 2012, spanning its retail, investment, and corporate banking business. Through the course of our relationship, we have provided strategic advice, monitoring support, engagement campaigns, crisis support and arms-and-legs support for many of Barclays’ public policy priorities.

This has included major changes both to the policymaking environment and Barclays’ business during this period such as:

• The UK’s exit from the EU and the associated reforms to the UK’s financial regulatory landscape.
• Major reviews into Wholesale Markets, the Future Regulatory Framework, the implementation of Basel 3.1, Fintech and Ringfencing among others.
• Closure of bank branches as the industry moves towards online and other forms of banking, a key focus for MPs.

Strategy & Execution

Our objective has been to cover numerous fast-moving and complex policy areas. We have ensured that Barclays is at the forefront of the conversation and able to advocate for its interests, both proactively and in response to relevant policy developments, including:

• Tracking (both backward- and forward-looking) of legislative and regulatory activity providing regular updates on the status of Parliamentary Bills, statutory instruments, discussion papers and consultations. For priority legislation, tracking of amendments during the passage of Bills.
• We also track the broader political sentiment on the Bank through a weekly database of social media comments from political stakeholders.
• Support on the design of events, such as Barclays’ activity at the political party conferences.
• Ongoing support in mapping stakeholder targets across Westminster, Whitehall and other relevant bodies as well as engagement support where relevant.
• Ad-hoc advice on business-critical political developments.

Result

Our guidance and counsel during the last decade has included supporting Barclays through major policy upheaval, including:

• The UK’s exit from the EU and the associated reforms to the UK’s financial regulatory landscape
• Major reviews into Wholesale Markets, the Future Regulatory Framework, the implementation of Basel 3.1, Fintech and Ringfencing among others
• Closure of bank branches as the industry moves towards online and other forms of banking, a key focus for MPs

Most recently, we have been helping Barclays understand and respond to the landmark Financial Services and Markets Bill. Barclays’ Government Relations team provided the following testimonial for our work:

Cicero’s ongoing support relating to the FSMB has been invaluable. They have provided critical insight into what to expect from the Bill, and helped structure our understanding of this wide-reaching legislation which touches on all areas of Barclays business

Barclays Government Relations Team

If you wish to discuss any of the issues mentioned in this article, please contact Sonia in H/Advisors Cicero’s UK Public Affairs team on sonia.khan@h-advisors.global