Barclays PLC has considered at least two deals in the past few years, but both have fallen through, reports the Wall Street Journal.

One potential partner was UniCredito Italiano SpA, an Italian bank that also owns fund firm Pioneer Investments. According to the Journal, Barclays and Unicredito held "preliminary talks" in 2004, but axed the deal because of Barclay's larger size. Anonymous sources close the talks told the Journal that another issues was whether rising star Bob Diamond, who heads Barclays' investment banking unit, Barclays Capital, as well as the private banking group and Barclays Global Investors, would head investment banking at the combined firm.

Barclays was also in preliminary talks with Bank of America back in 2003, but that deal also did not work out. Bank of America acquired Fleet Bank in 2004 and recently announced the acquisition of credit card company MBNA for $35 billion. Now that the bank has two deals under its belt, Bruce Packard, a banking analyst at ING Securities in London, told Reuters that BoA is "less likely" to take on a deal with Barclays.

Diamond, whose unit last year brought in nearly a quarter of Barclays' profit before taxes, has been given an informal guarantee of a place in a post-merger entity and will play a prominent role in any deal, anonymous sources tell the Journal.

"We don't believe we have to do a deal by any means. But we are open to the possibility," Diamond told Reuters.  

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