Barclays last night revealed it was cystallizing a £500 million loss after selling its Spanish retail banking and wealth management business for well below book value.
The 262-branch operation has been sold to CaixaBank, Spain’s third biggest lender for €800 million (£630 million).
The division has 550,000 customers, including many expatriate Britons living in Spain. They and 2,400 Barclays employees will transfer to Caixa on completion, which is expected in about four months.
The deal is the first major business disposal for chief executive Antony Jenkins, since he put the business and other Barclays assets into a “non-core” category in May.
Barclays said the deal, while creating losses, would have the advantage of reducing risk weighted assets by £8 billion and improving the core equity