Barclays on hunt for US foothold

BARCLAYS is on the hunt for new acquisitions - and an American bank is the likely target. Barclays is understood to have held talks with Providian Financial, a San Francisco-based credit card company valued at about £2bn. But other US banks could be in Barclays' sights.

Britain's third biggest bank is tipped to report profits of more than £3.9bn when it issues its results for 2003, up from £3.2bn last year.

But with growth in the UK now looking harder to achieve, analysts believe Barclays could signal a renewed interest in acquisitions.

Simon Maughan, banking analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said: 'Barclays is the fourth-largest European bank and its bigger rivals - HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Swiss bank UBS - all have a bigger presence in the US and it is where Barclays needs to grow. A US bank would be a good platform to take Barclaycard to that market.'

While the US market is dominated by global giants such as Citigroup and Bank of America, it is still fragmented with hundreds of smaller banks, many of which could make targets.