Barclays has achieved a £1bn cost-cutting target six months ahead of schedule - and most of the savings are due to IT.

In an exclusive interview with Computing, the bank's chief technical officer Kevin Lloyd revealed that IT was central to the success of the programme.

'We committed to a billion pounds in cost reductions over a four year period and we've achieved it,' he said.

Toby Broome, chief operating officer for Barclay's IT and operations department, says the bank reduced its technology costs in four main areas:

Outsourcing - 'We've shifted the balance of our contractors to outsourced supply and have been trying to source things more selectively,' said Lloyd.

In June, Barclays signed a £210m deal with EDS to outsource the management of its desktop infrastructure.

Service consolidation and centralisation - 'One of the main themes has been a focused and ruthless programme of consolidation of similar services and capabilities within IT and operations,' said Broome.

The majority of the bank's IT and operations is now managed through a consolidated core, rather than on local sites.

Supplier and product reduction - Working with a smaller number of global providers, such as IBM, Microsoft and Accenture, and focusing on product standardisation.

Process simplification - Re-engineering processes to drive up efficiencies and effectiveness.

'A combination of all of those themes is what has allowed us to achieve our cost cutting goal, like our work in rationalising our telephony infrastructure and our distributed computing,' said Broome.

By June, when Barclays announced its interim results, cumulative savings of £1,070m had been achieved across the organisation from IT and other initiatives.

Squeezing costs also means the bank has been able to sustain its IT spending.

Part of its £300m annual IT budget is being used to drive a technology refresh programme across its branches.

'Like the vast majority of our UK competitors, we've under-invested in our branch outlets for a combination of reasons,' said Lloyd.

'Although our IT budgets haven't risen, the numbers show that we're doing more for less with that money.'