Barclays Global Investors is a division of British based Barclays Bank which specialises in asset management. It is the largest money manager in the world, with over £791 billion under management at June 2005. The division is headquartered in San Francisco, and has research and portfolio management teams in London, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto, as well as client service offices in several additional major financial centres in Europe, North America and Asia.

History

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Barclays Global Investors began as units of Wells Fargo and Barclays Bank which merged in 1996. It invented the first passive index investing strategy for major institutional investors. Later, it went on to help pioneer the exchange-traded fund business (through its iShares brand), which is a special genre of security that can be traded at any time, and whose value is based on the value of a basket of stocks, bonds or commodities. Since the economics of this activity are heavily influenced by economies of scale, Barclays grew to be the number one asset manager in the world.

Since 2000, Barclays Global Investors' active fund management business has grown significantly, to the point where it accounted for approximately 50% of the firm's revenue in 2005.

Because the company is the largest asset manager, it is also the largest beneficial owner of companies in the world.

External links

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• Official site

Investment management companies | Barclays Group