Nine additional banks were hired by Barclays Plc to manage its rights offering worth GBP 5.8 billion or USD 8.9 billion. The bank is the second-largest lender in terms of assets in the United Kingdom. Its added pool of underwriters includes ABN Amro Bank NV, Banco Santander SA, BNP Paribas SA, ING Bank NV, JPMorgan, Mediobanca SpA, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada and SMBC Nikko Capital Markets Ltd. The nine bring to a total of fourteen banks taking care of the rights offering scheduled next month. The existing financial institutions are Barclays, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.

This rights offering is set to be the biggest since 2009 when the Lloyds Banking Group offered its shares totaling GBP 13.5 billion. Following the more stringent Basel III rules, Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins will be disposing the shares after the identification of a GBP 12.8 billion capital hole at Barclays in June by British regulators.