Barclays

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Corporate Responsibility for Barclays is embodied by the concept of ‘Responsible Banking'. Responsible Banking is an integral part of the way we do business, and a central element of our overall strategy to make Barclays one of the world's leading banks. Responsible Banking means making informed, reasoned and ethical decisions about how we conduct our business, how we treat our employees and how we behave towards our customers and clients.

The emphasis on Responsible Banking leads us to focus our approach around six key areas:

• Customer service
• Financial inclusion
• Responsible lending
• Environmental impacts
• Employee welfare
• Community investment

We are committed to treating our customers fairly and have developed a set of aspirational principles to help employees understand how they can help Barclays deliver on that commitment. A great deal of effort has gone into improving our products and services. We are giving customers more and better information before they buy so they can make more informed decisions and take more responsibility for their finances. This commitment remains a key priority and helps us to respond to the industry challenge posed by the UK's Financial Services Authority to demonstrate that we are treating customers fairly.

In South Africa, Absa is one of the leading providers of Mzansi low cost bank accounts. Mzansi accounts are part of an initiative by South Africa's banks to provide access to full service banking within 15km of all South Africans. In Ghana, Barclays is piloting a microfinance initiative supporting Susu collection, one of Africa's oldest forms of banking. In the UK we have launched a number of initiatives addressing access to financial education and advice, basic banking services and affordable credit, and we have provided financial support via community-based organisations.

Our commitment to responsible lending includes providing straightforward information, and applying strict, sensible lending criteria. In December 2005, we were a prime mover behind a new industry-wide scheme that will help us identify customers who may be facing difficulties managing their borrowing.

We were a co-founder of the Equator Principles covering social and environmental risk in project finance. We go further than the Principles state by applying them to all medium or high risk projects regardless of size. To manage our direct impacts we operate a central environmental management system, certified to ISO14001:2004, and have made a commitment to make our UK operations carbon neutral by 2007. We will be doing this by investing in sustainable energy projects and community-based energy efficiency schemes.

We are committed to having a diverse, talented and dedicated workforce and the health and safety of our employees is paramount wherever we operate in the world. Across our African operations we have a comprehensive HIV/AIDS programme and provide counselling, testing, and medical treatment including anti-retroviral drugs to our employees and their dependents. We have reviewed our HR policies to ensure they do not discriminate on the grounds of HIV status.

As a responsible bank it is vital to us that we invest in the communities where we operate, and ensure that our funding makes a positive impact. We are a member of the PerCent club – a group of companies that have undertaken to ensure that donations to the community over time amount to at least 1% of their UK pre-tax profit. In 2005, 27,000 Barclays employees and pensioners received support for fundraising or volunteering. When our people raise money for charity we match the amount raised up to a set maximum. The amount raised in 2005, including the Barclays matched element, came to £13.8m.

Our biggest international community story in 2005 was Barclays Miles Ahead, a five-month sponsored overland expedition across 13 countries. Along the route Barclays staff raised funds for charity and volunteered in their communities – in all about 7,000 staff took part. In the UK, Barclays Spaces for Sports is our largest project, with £30 million being invested over three years in creating and regenerating 150 sports sites and providing coaching kit to groups across the country.

Underpinning all these themes is a strong framework of governance.

The Brand and Reputation Committee, a sub-committee of the Group Executive Committee, is chaired by the Deputy Chairman. It focuses on identifying and managing issues of ethical and reputational significance to Barclays.

Barclays is a long-standing member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (ranking in the top quartile in 2005) and FTSE4Good. We participate annually in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index, ranking 32 out of 132 in 2005.

We hold dialogue throughout the year with shareholders, politicians and NGOs. The 2005 Corporate Responsibility report contains more detailed information on our activities and will be available from 27th April 2006.