Barclays is in talks with potential buyers of its retail business in Italy and Portugal as part of its asset disposal programme, Sky News has reported.

The British bank has already issued information to prospective bidders about the two operations. Barclays’ operations in Italy and Portugal comprise of 90 and 85 branches respectively.

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The sale of Italy and Portugal operations will speed up the bank’s exit from Eurozone.

The move came soon after the bank sacked its chief executive Antony Jenkins and replaced him with chairman John McFarlane on an interim basis.

"Arriving at Barclays with a fresh perspective, it is evident that we have a standout brand with first-class retail, commercial and investment banking businesses. Nevertheless, we are leaving value on the table and a new approach is required," the publication quoted McFarlane as saying.

"As a group, if we aspire to bring shareholder returns forward, we need to be much more focused on what is attractive, what we are good at, and where we are good at it."

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In May 2014, Barclays declared that its retail and business banking operations in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain would form part of its non-core division, which comprised various loans and businesses accounting for over £100bn of risk-weighted assets.

The lender also revealed that it would explore options to sell or exit these businesses over time.

Since then, Barclays sold its various operations, including its retail business in Spain to CaixaBank in 2014.