Barclays Buys Best Egg to Crack US Consumer Loan Market

Barclays’ consumer banking unit in the United States is set to acquire personal loan platform Best Egg.

The $800 million deal between Barclays U.S. Consumer Bank (USCB) and the startup is set to be completed next year in the second quarter, according to a Tuesday (Oct. 28) press release.

“The deep and sophisticated U.S. consumer finance market offers rich prospects for growth at Barclays,” Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said in the release. “The transaction will strengthen our U.S. Consumer Bank and offers an exciting opportunity to significantly bolster our capabilities in personal lending.”

Best Egg’s direct-to-consumer personal loan origination platform focuses on prime borrowers and has facilitated more than $40 billion in personal loans to over 2 million customers since its establishment in 2013, according to the release. This year, Best Egg is expected to facilitate more than $7 billion in personal loan originations.

“Best Egg complements USCB’s established partnership-driven credit card business, which provides unsecured personal lending to customers through a number of existing co-brand card partner programs,” the release said. “The transaction strengthens USCB’s franchise by acquiring digital and risk capabilities in this attractive part of the U.S. consumer finance market and providing significant flexibility in the efficient deployment of lending capacity and capital.”

The acquisition will follow the completion of the bank’s sale of its American Airlines co-brand credit card portfolio to Citigroup.

In other consumer finance news, PYMNTS Intelligence found that while consumers say they want to be saving more next year, the reality is that optimism often outpaces behavior.

“Rising costs and ‘wishful thinking’ about future savings have created a fragile layer of consumers,” PYMNTS reported Friday (Oct. 24). “These consumers appear financially stable, until one unexpected bill proves otherwise.”

Consumer finance today isn’t defined just by income or debt levels. It is also defined by budgeting.

“Even 31% of non-paycheck-to-paycheck households say inflation has eroded their ability to save,” the report said. “This is nearly matching the 38% who live paycheck to paycheck but manage their bills. In other words, the budgeting divide isn’t strictly about hardship but about mindset. It is about who adjusts their habits when costs rise, and who assumes tomorrow will be better.”