Barclays plans 4 branches

Inspite of the slump in the domestic market, some foreign banks continue to regard India as one the top investment regions.

British bank, Barclays is planning to open four new wealth management branches in India within this fiscal, targetting major metros like Kolkata.

Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference in Kolkata organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce, Satya Bansal, chief executive officer, Barclays Wealth India, said, “We plan to open four new wealth management branches in India within this fiscal, one of them being in Kolkata, since it is a very important wealth centre, besides Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi, all of which are the wealth houses of the country having a significant mass of high networth and ultra high networth individuals.”

He refused to divulge the investment needed for such expansion. At present the bank has only investment and retail banking operations in India through one branch in Mumbai.

Bansal said, “Barclays Wealth would continue to focus on high networth individuals or people with £10 million investable assets, and ultra high networth individuals or those with investable assets in excess of £30 million, as the seasoned investors would continue to invest despite the slump.”

The bank aims to tap the under-penetrated Indian HNI and ultra HNI market which would number 400,000 individuals by 2017, with estimated aggregate wealth of $1.7 trillion by 2017, according to a research done jointly by Barclays Wealth and Economic Intelligence Unit, said Bansal. Its wealth management team in India had at present 60 members and would also be scaled up to more than 100 professionals over five branches.

The bank would hire only people with long industry experience.