Barclays to Buy U.S. Lending Platform Best Egg for $800 Million

By Elena Vardon

Barclays agreed to buy U.S. direct-to-consumer personal-loan origination platform Best Egg for $800 million.

The U.K. bank said Tuesday that the deal will add scale and improve the capital efficiency of its U.S. consumer-banking subsidiary.

The acquisition will generate an attractive return on investment over time and is set to be accretive to Barclays's return on tangible equity and earnings per share in 2027, it said.

Barclays will keep Best Egg's model of funding loans through different structures and generating fees from its loan origination and servicing activities. Since its founding in 2013, Best Egg has provided more than $40 billion in personal loans to over two million customers.

The group is expected to facilitate more than $7 billion in personal-loan originations through its platform this year and currently services around $11 billion in personal loans.

The transaction is set to close in the second quarter of 2026, after the sale of Barclays's American Airlines co-brand credit card receivables, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions. The net effect of both deals should increase the bank's common equity tier 1 ratio--a key measure of balance-sheet strength--by six basis points in that quarter.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 28, 2025 04:02 ET (08:02 GMT)