Barclaycard, part of Barclays Retail and Business Banking, is a global payment business. The Barclaycard was the first credit card introduced in the UK, coming into service in 1966. It enjoyed a monopoly until the introduction of the Access card in 1972. Barclaycard later became part of the Visa network but now offer both MasterCard and Visa versions. Barclaycard claims it is Europe’s leading issuer of credit cards with 10.4 million customers in the UK and 10.8 million outside the UK.
