Barclays, Britain’s biggest wealth manager and third largest bank, said it plans to spend up to 375 million pounds in the next three years building up its wealth management business to drive profits higher, according to a Reuters report.
A spokeswoman for the bank told Reuters that Barclays Wealth Management aimed to spend GBP 100-125 million annually for the next three years on hiring staff and upgrading technology.
She said the division — where banks manage the assets of the affluent — aimed to multiply profit from the 172 million pounds it produced last year, but declined to provide more specific targets.
The investment will be funded from higher revenues and cost savings from within the unit, and would continue a revamp of the business since December 2004, when it came under the control of Bob Diamond, head of the investment banking arm.
Diamond promoted Thomas Kalaris to head the division from the start of this year, giving him a mandate to expand both through acquisitions and under the unit’s own steam.