Barclays bank was founded n the year 1960 and is a major bank operating globally with 1800 branches in UK alone. It is providing commercial banking, investment banking and investment management to millions of its customers. The headquarters of the Barclays Bank is in London, England. It has its operations in many countries around the world.

Barclays Bank has passed through many phases and undergone many mergers and acquisitions since its inception. The recent being that of Lehman Brothers. Barclays Bank purchased investment banking and trading divisions of Lehman Brothers, including the New York headquarters building. Lehman Brothers was an exemplary financial institution that got hit by the economic crisis and finally had to be acquired by the Barclays Bank. 

Over the years Barclays Bank has remained involved in many controversies. Many controversies surrounded it for years.

Barclays Bank was accused of supporting the apartheid government in South Africa. It was known as Boerclaysbank during the apartheid regime due to its alleged involvement in supporting the government. Because of the apartheid government, people of South Africa has suffered greatly so it was a great blow to their reputation to be associated with them. In 2006, The Jubilee South Africa backed Khulumani Support Group; an activist group in South Africa lodged a case against Barclays Bank for supporting the apartheid government during the 1970’s and 1980’s. The South African Ministry of Justice is seeking dismissal of the case on the grounds that it deteriorates its national sovereignty.

This is not the only case of Barclays Bank involvement in supporting a controversial government and assisting monetarily in violating human rights. There is another such case and of the same region where people are suffering a great deal at the hands of their government. The people of these regions have been dealing with civil war and instability. So anyone who aids them in any manner would be accused in equal in the atrocities that they have afflicted. One such example is Barclays Bank support of the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe. Barclays Bank provided £30m loans to help sustain Mugabe’s land reforms that captured white-owned farmland and drive more than 100,000 black workers from their homes. Many protested that the Barclays Bank involvement a 'disgrace' and an 'insult' to the millions who have suffered human rights abuses. Not only this, Barclays Bank provided bank accounts to two of Mugabe’s associates, ignoring European Union sanctions on Zimbabwe. 

Barclays Bank was accused of violating international anti-money laundering laws in 2009. One of the branches of Barclays Bank had the account of Equatorial Guinean President’s son who was accused of siphoning oil revenues from the government funds.

Another controversy surrounding Barclays Bank is that even though the subprime mortgage crisis in the US forced the bank to take a £1.6bn hit in 2007, Robert Diamond, a US-born banker on the board of Barclays, received a £14.8m bonus in 2008.

Barclays Bank has also been involved in tax avoidance. One such report was published by The Guardian. This report was removed form the website of The Guardian after Barclays Bank obtained injunction for that. This created a great hue and cry that they are trying to hide their tax details.

Barclays Bank is known to be involved in the arms trade as well. In fact it is known to be the biggest arms dealer having a great share in the arms manufacturing company. 

Controversies keep evolving and revolving. Sometimes these are started by the opponents to mar the reputation of an entity. Sometimes they are realities. But there needs to be proof to support them. In this world of turf war among corporate giants it is very difficult to believe what the truth is.