"We are reducing the complexity in our business and focussing on bringing products to clients in locations where we have scale," a spokesman from the bank confirmed, although he declined to name which territories were affected.
Minimal job losses
While the spokesman confirmed that there would be some job losses from the bank’s wealth management division (which employs some 8,000 staff globally) he added that the numbers "would not add up to a significant amount."
"We did not have offices all the countries we are leaving – it was more of a case of our bankers flying out and meeting prospective clients," he added.
The news comes days after Credit Suisse’s confirmation that it is to withdraw from around 50 non-core markets. HSBC also wound down its Irish private banking arm in October last year.
The decision to cut back on the less profitable parts of its business follows the permanent appointment of Peter Horrell to the position of chief executive of Barclay’s Wealth and Investment Management business, announced on Monday.
Business investment
Horrell, who has been the bank’s interim chief since May, has said that the focus moving forward would be on the 70 territories the bank was holding onto, with the spokesman adding that these still represented "86% of the world’s wealth".
The bank has also outlined its intention to expand the number of its high net worth clients – individuals with more than £500,000 to invest – as well as its ultra high net worth client-base, defined by the bank as investors with more than £20m.
As part of the bank’s wide reaching ‘Transform review’ £400m will be invested into the business over the next three years with some of this earmarked towards building a number of ‘centres of excellence’ within the bank’s wealth management business which will also use the bank’s own investment management and cross-border banking expertise.
The centres are being spearheaded by Rory Tobin, head of global research and investment, who joined Barclay’s last year.
