Barclays to Sell Stake in Entercard Joint Venture to Swedbank for $272 Million

By Elena Vardon

Barclays agreed to sell its stake in its Nordic consumer-credit joint venture Entercard to partner Swedbank for around 2.6 billion Swedish kroner ($272.7 million) in cash.

The British and Swedish banks set up Entercard two decades ago to provide credit cards and consumer loans to customers in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Swedbank will buy the half of Entercard it didn't yet own for 2.6 billion kroner, based on the company's book value of 5.2 billion kroner at the end of the first quarter, the banks said on Thursday. The credit business--which employs around 450 staff and serves 1.5 million customers--will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swedish lender and continue to operate under its own brand.

"We are forming the largest card business in the Nordics and Baltics," Swedbank Deputy Chief Executive Tomas Hedberg said.

For Barclays, the disposal should release around 900 million pounds ($1.21 billion) of risk-weighted assets and improve its common equity Tier 1 ratio--a key measure of capital strength--by around 4 basis points when the deal closes. Swedbank's CET1 ratio will take a hit of 30 basis points.

The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year subject to approvals.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 28, 2025 03:06 ET (07:06 GMT)