Barclays U.S. Card Unit Plans to Maintain Its Rapid Growth

Since Barclays PLC bought Juniper Financial Corp. in 2004, receivables at the London company's U.S. card business have nearly quintupled, to $5 billion.

The Wilmington, Del., unit, now named Barclaycard U.S., said Tuesday that it is now the fastest-growing major U.S. issuer of credit cards.

"We are playing in the major leagues now," Lloyd Wirshba, the unit's chief executive, said in an interview. "The company is clearly on the map."

Mr. Wirshba, who joined the affinity card specialist in April from the outsourcer ICT Group Inc., where he was the chief marketing and administrative officer, said he does not expect the unit's growth to slow in the near future, even though companies like General Electric Co. and Western Alliance Bancorp. have entered the affinity market.

"We believe the wind is at our back, and we think that is due to the fact that we have proven to our partners what we are selling," Mr. Wirshba said. "We welcome other entrants, but clearly what we have done is position ourselves as a very strong alternative to the big three" issuers: Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Citigroup Inc.

Barclaycard U.S. touts technologies such as instant credit approval and contactless payment devices as a selling point with affinity partners.

On Tuesday it started issuing a Visa-branded credit card with contactless technology cobranded with the retailer BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. Other partners include US Airways Group Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc., and Carnival Corp.

Another three partnerships with "very recognizable brands" are in the works, Joe Purzycki, the new chief operating officer of Barclaycard U.S., said this month.

He and Mr. Wirshba said another competitive advantage for the unit is an operating system at least 13 years younger than many of the systems operated by competitors.

"We are able to be more nimble and flexible and provide customized solutions based upon the platform that we have created. That has clearly played to some of the appeal" for the unit's partners, Mr. Wirshba said.

Barclaycard U.S. said it opened a customer service center in Colorado Springs in 2005 and a second Wilmington office this year. The unit had 700,000 accounts and $1.4 billion of outstanding loans in 2004, compared with 3.5 million cardholders and $5 billion of receivables today. Its staff has nearly quadrupled since 2004, to 1,400 employees.

Mr. Wirshba said Barclaycard U.S., which is currently the 13th-largest card issuer in the country, hopes to enter the top 10 in the near future.

Mark Thomas, an analyst in London at KBW Inc.'s Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd., said the growth of the U.S. card business was not surprising, given the British parent company's breadth of experience at home. "Barclaycard has been going for a very long time" in the United Kingdom. "Cards is a business which it knows extremely well."

The rapid expansion has come with growing pains. Last year Barclaycard U.S. attributed an $81 million loss in part to its efforts to expand its cardholder base, which soared 85% from 2005, to 3.9 million.

In April the unit said three senior executives, including Richard Vague, Juniper's founder, had left to pursue "fresh opportunities."

Mr. Purzycki said Barclaycard U.S. is on track to turn a small profit this year and earn $150 million next year.

Mr. Wirshba said it remains focused on affinity programs and cobranding. "Barclays is a partner-centric card program, and we will continue to employ that as our growth strategy."

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