Samir Bhatia, the managing director of Barclays India, is sitting on the floor of a community building in Marol, a slum district of Bombay. In front of him, some women are explaining how their savings and loans scheme works. It is a moment in which worlds collide.

Each of the 20 members of the Lakshmi self-help group put aside 50 rupees (67p) a month so that they can borrow money to support their children through school or buy things that they need for their homes. Mr Bhatia controls the Indian operations of an international bank with 42 million customers, a company that in February was ranked the world's 25th-biggest in the Forbes Global 2000 list.

Barclays is joining Unicef, the children's charity, in Building Young Futures, a three-year international community investment programme offering young people the opportunity to gain financial skills and independence. Mr Bhatia was visiting Marol, one of the most deprived areas of the financial capital of India, before the launch of the partnership today.

The Lakshmi group, which takes its name from the Hindu goddess of wealth, is a model for the way in which the project will operate in India, bringing together girls and young women to help them to gain economic autonomy.

Barclays is channelling £5 million into the initiative, the largest single donation that Unicef UK has received from a corporate partner. Yet as well as giving, Barclays admits that there is a profit motive for its involvement. By supporting Unicef's work to develop education and financial literacy, the hope is that young people in emerging markets worldwide will be brought into the banking system. Employment and enterprise, the project partners say, will stimulate developing economies and increase demand for financial services, bringing new customers into banks. Thus Unicef's development challenge is Barclays' business opportunity.

Marcus Agius, the chairman of Barclays, calls the partnership a “multiple win equation ... This is absolutely in our sweet spot at Barclays, because we are based in the UK but operate in a lot of countries around the world - and in some of those countries, certainly in sub-Saharan Africa, the great majority of the population are simply not part of the financial community, they are financially excluded. When I say the great majority, I mean numbers in excess of 70 per cent, sometimes even 80 per cent, and that's not good for the individual, certainly, it's not good for the country, it's not good for us.” The winners, he added, were the individuals and the financial systems in which they lived.

Barclays employees are actively encouraged to volunteer their time and skills for the company's community investment work. Mr Agius acted as a mentor for pupils at a school in East London, not far from the bank's Canary Wharf headquarters, as part of its annual international Make a Difference Day.

Moreover, Barclays is pledging 15,000 hours of staff time to support the partnership with Unicef. Mr Agius said that staff morale was boosted by this engagement - and so was the company's reputation: “If we are seen to be acting responsibly, people think well of us, which has benefits in all sorts of ways.”

This aspect of the business is also becoming an increasingly important factor in recruitment. Thirty years ago job applicants asked about the pension scheme or opportunities to work abroad; now many question commitments to green issues and a corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. To those who remain sceptical about CSR initiatives, this might sound, at best, like tokenism and, at worst, mercenary — a big bank stepping in to help those in need only if it can chart the route back to the bottom line.

Mr Agius countered the suggestion that Barclays is interested purely in financial gain. “That is not the case. What is the case is that to the extent that we donate $10 million [£6.4 million] or $150 million or whatever it is we are talking about, that money does not belong to me as chairman, it belongs to our shareholders, and if we can fulfil our sense of responsibility in a way which brings benefits by doing it intelligently and strategically, it has got to be better than the alternative. And it is about as simple as that.”

Unicef is at ease with the business case behind the involvement of Barclays. David Bull, the chief executive of Unicef UK, said: “Companies are an increasingly important part of the financial base of our operations, but they bring lots more than that. They bring the skills and energy of their people, they bring the opportunity for us to reach out to the customers of the business and to the public at large, and we have no difficulty at all, providing there is a benefit for the children that it is our purpose to help.” If there are also benefits to the company, he added, as long as they are proportionate — “which I think in this case they certainly are” — that is not an issue.

There are fears that the economic downturn might force a return of the sentiment that charity begins at home. According to the Charities Aid Foundation, a body that aims to generate greater value for charities, nearly a third are experiencing a fall in donations.

Barclays, however, will not be making any cuts to its budget for community investment work. It spent £52.4 million on these programmes in 2007 and it expects this year's figure to be similar.

“We are not enjoying this current economic climate any more than anybody else, but, with a 300-year history, we know that it will turn up, and we will come through the other side,” Mr Agius said. “We believe it is absolutely right to sustain our programmes ... and that is what we are going to do.”

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