LONDON, Jan 22, 2026, 08:55 GMT
- On Jan. 21, Barclays repurchased 2,522,940 shares, with prices ranging from 470.10p to 479.00p each
- Since the programme kicked off in October, a total of 86,403,909 shares have been repurchased
- Renewed tariff disputes and geopolitical strains have rattled investors, fueling market volatility
Barclays repurchased 2,522,940 ordinary shares on Wednesday, set for cancellation, a regulatory filing revealed. The bank paid a volume-weighted average price of 475.0654 pence per share. These shares traded between 470.10 pence and 479.00 pence on the London Stock Exchange. 1
Barclays said the latest buyback pushes the total shares repurchased since the programme started on Oct. 23 to 86,403,909. Following the cancellation, the bank’s issued share capital will total 13,833,671,348 ordinary shares with voting rights. 2
Buybacks are crucial now, as they’re a primary method for big banks to return excess capital. They also boost earnings per share by reducing the number of shares outstanding. This update lands amid investor efforts to figure out how much capital banks can still deploy while political turmoil rattles the markets.
“Global investors are taking these threats seriously,” Jack Ablin, founding partner and chief investment strategist at Cresset Capital, told Reuters this week. He was referring to the renewed tariff chatter and the tensions sparked by U.S. actions concerning Greenland. 3
Ablin’s comment sets the stage for much of the current trading in European financial stocks. The so-called “Sell America” trade — where investors reduce their U.S. asset holdings amid heightened risk — has also resurfaced in market discussions, Reuters noted.
Barclays announced plans to cancel all shares it has repurchased and confirmed it holds no ordinary shares in treasury. “Treasury shares” refer to stock a company retains after a buyback instead of cancelling it.
The bank confirmed these purchases came through Citigroup Global Markets Limited as part of the buyback it announced on Oct. 23. An earlier filing revealed a £500 million share buyback and a shift to quarterly buyback announcements. It plans to update targets through 2028 when it reports full-year 2025 results on Feb. 10, 2026. 4
Barclays isn’t the only one. On Wednesday, NatWest repurchased 830,691 shares for cancellation at a volume-weighted average price of 647.34 pence, continuing its existing buyback program. 5
But buybacks aren’t a fail-safe. Should volatility dent growth, or regulators demand higher capital buffers, banks could curb or halt repurchases — and shares might still fall amid a wider risk-off selloff.
Barclays revealed earlier this week that its total share buybacks since the programme’s start have exceeded 81 million shares, highlighting the rapid pace of repurchases even before the latest round. 6
