Barclays Bank closes financial planning advice

Following a review Barclays is planning to stop offering financial advice through its retail branches by closing Barclays Financial Planning as it was deemed no longer commercially viable.Barclays said it expected to offer retail investment advice online, and that it expected financial advice in bank branches to decline. ‘Barclays has been conducting a detailed review of its financial planning advice over recent months.This review has concluded that, given the changes to the retail investment marketplace, it is unlikely that this business would be able to deliver a return that would justify the investment required,' said a spokeswoman.Barclays said it will shift its focus to online execution only service Investor Zone and that existing plans and investments currently held by customers will continue to be serviced.The bank was recently fined £7.7 million by the Financial Services Authority for mis-selling two Aviva funds.