Shareholder communication guidelines

Principles around shareholder communication

The Board is committed to promoting effective channels of communication with our shareholders and upholding good corporate governance as a means of building stronger and more engaged relationships with them. Our comprehensive Investor Relations engagement with the market helps us to understand investor views about Barclays, which are communicated regularly to the Board.  

We strive to be accessible to both institutional and private investors, and proactively encouraged all shareholders to attend and vote at our 2023 AGM using the electronic facilities which were made available.

Financial reporting

We are committed to providing greater disclosure and transparency in our financial reporting, with the aim of being industry-leading.

We aim to deliver all financial and strategic communications in a consistent and open way, ensuring wherever possible, the use of ‘plain English’ to make such disclosures easily intelligible and in order to present a fair, balanced and understandable assessment of the company’s position and prospects. We welcome feedback and suggestions for improvement, which can be submitted to Investor Relations Feedback.

All financial reports and regulatory announcements as well as associated materials including management presentations and transcripts are made available in our Financial Results section on a timely basis for all investors to access.

AGM participation

The 2023 AGM was held on Wednesday 3 May 2023 at 11:00am (UK time) at QEII Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3EE and electronically on an online platform as described in the Notice of Meeting.

The AGM is an important event in the Company’s corporate calendar providing an opportunity for us to engage with shareholders. We recognise that many shareholders value the opportunity to engage directly with the Board at the AGM. This year we held the AGM as a combined physical and electronic meeting (known as a hybrid meeting) enabling shareholders to attend the AGM in the way that best suited them.

Shareholders were able to vote in person at the physical AGM, by using electronic facilities or by appointing a proxy in advance of the meeting. They were able to raise questions ‘live’ in real time, either in person at the AGM, using the telephone or electronic facilities, or by submitting a question in advance of the meeting. 

Institutional investors

Barclays Investor Relations is dedicated to managing relationships with institutional equity and debt investors. A structured engagement programme is in place to ensure regular and proactive communication with shareholders and prospective investors, which promotes dialogue on longer-term strategic developments as well as on the financial performance of the Barclays Group.

We aim to balance investor engagement throughout the year, providing the opportunity for frequent interaction with all investors through a variety of forums including investor meetings, conference calls/webcasts, investor seminars and conferences and management in-person presentations. We also periodically hold investor days and breakfast briefings in addition to our quarterly results presentations to update investors on our businesses and strategy.

Executive Directors, including the Group Chief Executive Officer and Group Finance Director as well as other senior divisional management, are regularly involved in engagement with investors, accompanied by Investor Relations. The Chairman, Senior Independent Director and other Non-Executive Directors are also available to meet with our larger shareholders on corporate governance matters, including remuneration, Board composition and specific AGM resolutions.

Private shareholders

We communicate with our private shareholders throughout the year through our shareholder mailings, which include notifications of dividends, the AGM and other initiatives which we feel may be of benefit to communicate.

We offer shareholders the facility to elect to receive electronic communications by signing up to Shareview, an online portal provided by our Registrar, Equiniti. More detail can be found on the Shareholder Information section of our website.

We also offer shareholders the facility to hold shares electronically through our Corporate Sponsored Nominee, Barclays Sharestore. More detail can be found on the Shareholder Information section of our website.

The Barclays share register is maintained by Equiniti. Equiniti maintain a dedicated Barclays Shareholder Helpline so that shareholders can easily make contact if they have any questions about their shareholding. In order to ensure that Equiniti provides the highest quality of service to our shareholders, we monitor their performance on a monthly basis via their service reports and review meetings. Shareholders can contact Equiniti on 0371 384 2055 (in the UK) or +44 121 415 7004 (from overseas). Lines are open 08:30 to 17:30 (UK time), Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in England and Wales. More detail can be found on the Shareholder Information section of our website.

If you have any questions about American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) please contact Shareowner Services.

Corporate governance

We are committed to promoting the very highest standards of corporate governance in Barclays. We seek to be at the forefront of global best practice and to respond, in a timely fashion, to corporate governance developments. Further detail can be found on the ‘Our framework, code and rules’ section of our website.