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Barclays has streamlined its £100 million below-the-line

business, reducing its roster of more than 60 agencies to five.

The bank claims the change will enable it to form closer and deeper

relationships with its roster shops and deliver a more consistent

message to its customers.

The agencies which will share the assignment are EHS Brann,

McCann-Erickson Financial, Tequila, The Forward Group and Fox Murphy.

Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel and Tullo Marshall Warren were among

the agencies to lose their places on the roster.

The decision completes an overhaul of the bank's marketing arrangements,

which began with the appointment of Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Starcom

Motive six months ago to share its £15 million above-the-line

assignments.

The creative assignment moved from Leagas Delaney, which created the

controversial "big" campaign featuring famous actors including Sir

Anthony Hopkins.

The shake-up was instituted by Simon Gulliford, the group marketing

director, and completed by Andrew Gillespie, the group director of

marketing operations, who oversaw the latest review.

"We have been making changes across the board in order to turn ourselves

into a more customer-focused organisation," a spokesman for Barclays

said.

"Having a roster of 60 below-the-line agencies has meant that we don't

have the deep relationships that we want with our suppliers. The new

arrangement will allow these five agencies to dig deeper into our

business."