The chief executive of Barclays has praised Wimbledon organisers for “rightly resisting pressures” to drop the bank’s sponsorship, suggesting that protests over issues including its climate policies are “ultimately misguided”.
The UK bank has been the subject of a wave of demonstrations by climate campaigners and anti-war activists. They claim Barclays has been sponsoring big sporting events and music festivals to “launder” its reputation, and “cover up” its role in funding climate polluters and providing financial services to defence companies, in particular those accused of supplying equipment to Israel as it continues its war in Gaza.
Last month, it resulted in Barclays being asked to step down as the sponsor of Live Nation festivals, including Download, Latitude and Isle of Wight, after bands boycotted the events over the bank’s alleged links to the Gaza conflict.
However, Wimbledon held firm despite the protests, with one of the tennis tournament’s officials saying last month that they were “incredibly proud” of the partnership, which had gone through a “very thorough vetting process”.
The Barclays chief executive said on Thursday he was pleased organisers had resisted “misguided” pressures to cut ties with the high-street bank.
“While there have been, of course, some sponsorships that have been vocal and not wanting to work with Barclays … there have been other sponsorships, and Wimbledon is prominent among them, who continue to work well with us, be very supportive, and continue to intensify … cooperation,” CS Venkatakrishnan said.
“I’m continually grateful for those institutions that continue to be supportive to us and rightly resisting pressures, which I think are ultimately misguided.”
He also condemned attacks on the bank’s branches and staff, as climate and anti-war activists continued to vandalise sites across the UK. Venkatakrishnan said he believed public opinion was more balanced.
“People understand the progressiveness of our policy on climate change, people understand the concerns we have about, on the one hand violence against our own staff and against our branches, and our willingness to discuss these things … as long as they do not engage in violence, and are ready to discuss these things openly,” he said.
Barclays said while it did not invest directly in defence companies, it remained committed to providing financial services to the sector, which were “an essential part of keeping this country and our allies safe”.
The comments came as the bank announced it would hand £1.2bn to shareholders, including through a £750m share buy-back. That was despite a slight 1% drop in second-quarter profits to £1.9bn.
However, Barclays comfortably beat estimates for profits of £1.6bn thanks to a stronger performance by its investment bank and wealth management operations.
