Re Joint Venture

Barclays PLC
29 September 2004

                                                               29 September 2004



Barclaycard enters into joint venture with House of Fraser



Barclays PLC ('Barclays') and House of Fraser have entered into a partnership
under which Barclaycard will form a joint venture with House of Fraser to manage
its financial services business from June 2007 for a period of 10 years. House
of Fraser and Barclaycard will share the profits generated by the joint venture
on a 50/50 basis.


Barclaycard is expected to make total cash payments to House of Fraser, between
January 2005 and 2007, totalling some £25 million.  The cash payment will be
made from Barclays internal resources.  The expected premium to receivables
transferred by House of Fraser to the joint venture is 16% to 18%.


The current House of Fraser loyalty and storecard business has over one million
active cardholders. From 2007, the joint venture will manage existing and new
accounts and both parties see an exciting opportunity to develop a range of
financial services.


The move underlines Barclaycard's strategy to grow its UK lending business, with
a growing contribution from non Barclaycard-branded businesses, namely Monument,
Littlewoods Financial Services and Clydesdale Financial Services.


-  ends -



For further information, please contact:



Ian Barber/Mark Gonnella
Public Relations, Barclaycard
Tel:  + 44 (0) 1604 251229



James. S. Johnson
Investor Relations, Barclays
Tel:  [phone]



Barclays PLC

Barclays is an international financial services group engaged primarily in
banking, investment banking and investment management.  Barclays has been
involved in banking for over 300 years and operates in over 60 countries, with
76,200 employees and over 2,900 branches worldwide.  Barclays has five major
business groupings.  UK Banking is its core retail and business banking
franchise in the UK.  Barclays has around 14 million UK personal customers and
740,000 business customers. Private Clients and International are comprised of
Barclays wealth management business and personal and commercial banking
activities outside the UK. Barclaycard is the largest credit card brand in
Europe and operates in Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Republic
of Ireland and across Africa.  Barclays Capital is the Group's investment bank
focused on financing and risk management focused and BGI is Barclays global
leader in the institutional investment management market.  For more information
about Barclays PLC, please visit www.barclays.com






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