E-commerce and E-Enablement

Barclays PLC
23 May 2000

                                    
BARCLAYS PLC ANNOUNCES £325 MILLION INVESTMENT
IN E-COMMERCE AND E-ENABLEMENT INITIATIVES IN 2000
                                      
At an e-day seminar being held today for analysts, investors and the media,
Barclays PLC will outline its e-business strategy.

The seminar will set out how Barclays is undertaking a complete e-business
transformation of the organisation, and why it believes this approach is the
best way to compete successfully in the new economy.  It will outline some
of its strategic thinking, and cover its latest initiatives available to
both new and existing customers in both the business-to-consumer and
business-to-business e-commerce arenas.

Barclays is the largest UK internet bank and is now one of the five biggest
internet banks in the world, with one million online customers.  As part of
this transformation programme, Barclays expects to spend £325 million on
investment in e-commerce and e-enablement initiatives in 2000 to improve its
service to customers.  This compares with £180 million spent in 1999.

The new initiatives to be launched between now and the end of the year
include Barclays new integrated retail financial portal, the latest release
of personal online banking products, Barclays Stockbrokers' latest real time
dealing service, Barclays B2B.com and the joint venture with Freeserve to
create a small business portal.

Barclays Group Chief Executive Matt Barrett said 'Our objective is to use
technology to develop entirely new business models that allow us to deliver
superior value to the customer while transforming our internal
infrastructure to make us more efficient and effective.  Any strategy that
doesn't achieve both is fundamentally flawed and will have difficulty
meeting the extraordinary challenges we face'.

The presentations and demonstrations from Barclays e-day will be available
on the Barclays website at: www.investor.barclays.co.uk/eday.

                                      
Investor Relations                 Corporate Communications

Ian Roundell                       Leigh Bruce
020 7699 2961                      020 7699 2658

Emma Savage                        Maria Darby
020 7699 2960                      020 7699 2970