From Tanganyika to Trinidad and from towering city branches to tiny one-room shacks in the bush, the 1,340 overseas offices of Britain's biggest bank carry the same inscription: "Barclays Bank D.C.O." Wags insist that the initials stand for "debtors, creditors and overdrafts." but in fact they stand for nothing. In 1954. as the British empire retrenched, Barclays prudently struck out "Dominion, Colonial and Overseas" from its longtime overseas title and left the meaningless initials. Today it is involved in a profitable partnership with onetime colonials that has raised its assets to...
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