Based on terms of the contract, the bank will provide day-to-day banking services efficiently to all three county councils as per their requirements.

It is expected that all the concerned counties would be able to save approximately £574,000 over the next five years.

Commenting on the contract Barclays local authorities head Chris Hearn said due to budgetary constraints, county councils are increasingly looking for more efficient ways of working, beyond the boundaries of their own county.

LGSS Joint Committee chair Councillor Langley said that the joint banking contract will help councils to save significant amounts of time and money being spent on running three separate procurement processes.

Barclays offers personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and investment management services to individual as well as institutional clients.

Headquartered in London, Barclays trades in more than 50 nations in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia and has nearly 140,000 staff.