(Adds NatWest, Standard Chartered support)
By Lawrence White and Iain Withers
LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Barclays has funded 1
million pounds ($1.4 million) worth of medical supplies for
India in the last week, as British banks with big operations in
the country increase support to their own staff and wider
communities.
India's total coronavirus cases exceeded 18 million on
Thursday after another record number of daily infections added
to the strain on overwhelmed hospitals.
Employers in India have set up COVID-19 "war-rooms" to
source oxygen, medicine and hospital beds for infected workers,
Reuters reported.
"We are very focused on India right now, which is our second
biggest employee location," Chief Executive Jes Staley told
reporters on Friday after the bank's first quarter results.
Staley said Barclays - which has roughly 20,000 employees in
India - had directed money from its charitable funds to partners
in India.
Over the last year, it has also shifted some of the workload
back to the United Kingdom.
British peer NatWest - which employs 13,000 people in India
- also said it was providing support, including reimbursing
people for COVID-19 vaccinations obtained through official
medical channels for them and their family members.
NatWest on Friday told staff it had donated an
additional 360,000 pounds to COVID-19 charities supporting
countries including India.
Barclays and NatWest have also offered to match employee
donations to COVID-19 vaccine charities. Standard Chartered
has been trying to purchase oxygen for staff hit by the
virus, a spokesman for the bank said on Thursday.
"We are very mindful that a number of employees need to stay
home. We want to keep paying them, but allow them to help their
families manage," Barclays' Staley said.
He said an increased number of calls from British customers
in the pandemic had added pressure, but UK-based staff had
helped out, especially in branches.
"Historically we have not used branch centre staff to take
incoming call centre calls. We asked them if they would mind and
they stood up. That's an exercise we will continue past the
pandemic," he said.
($1 = 0.7182 pounds)
(Reporting by Lawrence White and Iain Withers
Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Barbara Lewis)