Barclays plan £400m assets sale

British banking group Barclays is planning to raise £400m (€564m) by securitising billions of pounds worth of assets from its life operations.

The bank is understood to be holding talks over a possible deal, with a view to using the money to improve its capital efficiency and help finance growth.

Its life operations, Barclays Life and Woolwich Life, have assets of around £6.5bn (€9.16bn) under management and hold funds for 1.4 million policyholders.

However they have been closed to new business since 2001 when Barclays signed a deal with insurer Legal & General to sell its life insurance and pension products.