Barclays in £75m outsourcing extension with Xansa

Barclays has extended an outsourcing joint venture with IT services company Xansa in a five-year deal worth at least £75m.

Barclays and Xansa formed the joint venture - with Barclays holding a 51 per cent stake in the operation - in 2002 to provide a broad range of technology and business change management services to the retail and commercial units of Barclaycard.

Around 450 Barclaycard jobs transferred to Xansa as part of the original deal.

The joint venture will continue to supply applications management and major business change programmes to Barclaycard, and Barclays has expanded the scope to cover services that will be delivered to the wider Barclays group by Xansa.

Gary Edwards, senior technology officer at Barclays, said the outsourcing deal will help the banking group get products to market quicker and improve service to customers.

Alistair Cox, CEO of Xansa, said the joint venture will deliver "real business benefit" beyond simple cost reduction for Barclays.