Barclays opens largest backend office outside London, in Pune

Leading British lender Barclays has opened its new campus in Pune-which is touted to be the largest outside its London facility--to strengthen its global network and operational integration. The Pune campus will house 9,000 of the its 19,000 permanent employees in India, and is its latest campus joining Whippany in the US and Glasgow in Britain.

Spread across 1.1 million sqft of building area, the facility at Kharadi in Pune is the largest single-location outside Barclays' global headquarters in the British capital, the bank which quit its retail banking operations in the country after the global capital financial crisis of 2008, said in a statement on Tuesday. Currently, the bank is into wholesale and investment banking apart from advisory services in the country.

"The new campus will further strengthen our global network, supporting innovation and ensuring increased integration of our global operations and technology services in India," Barclays said without offering any information about the investments. "We have had significant presence in India for almost 30 years, and we are continuing to invest and help promote the Indo-British economic partnership," group CFO Mark Ashton- Rigby was quoted as saying in the statement..