Barclays PLC is set to launch a U.S. retail current account that will target customers who want to combine the low costs of a digital-only bank with the security of dealing with a major financial institution, the Financial Times reported Oct. 14.

The move will put the British lender in competition with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s online retail lending platform Marcus, which has been available in the U.S. since 2016 and launched in the U.K. in September.

"We're going to launch checking, we're in the process of doing the build and we're doing some testing ... we expect to have that in the market next year," Barry Rodrigues, head of cards and payments at Barclays International, told the newspaper.

Barclays will offer savings rates of nearly 2%, similar to Marcus, the FT reported.