Barclays to add Singapore as private bank booking centre by 2026

BARCLAYS plans to add Singapore as its second booking centre for its private bank operations in Asia Pacific, marking a full return to the wealth hub.

Rich clients will be able to park assets in the city-state by 2026, the London-based firm said on Tuesday (Nov 26). India has been its sole booking centre in the region after Barclays sold its wealth businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong to OCBC in 2016.

Barclays’ move is significant, as Singapore vies with Switzerland and Hong Kong to be the world’s most popular destination for offshore wealth, attracting flows from China, the Middle East and other parts of the world.

The Singapore plan “positions us to strategically capture strong global and regional inflows”, said Nitin Singh, Asia-Pacific head of Barclays’ private bank.

The UK bank will face no shortage of competition in the South-east Asian nation, with international and domestic banks all striving to capture the growing wealth in the region.

Wealth team expansion

Barclays has plans to grow its wealth team threefold in India and Singapore as the bank seeks to quadruple its regional assets by the end of 2028, Singh said in a July interview without providing numbers.

The bank re-entered Singapore in 2021 when it hired Evonne Tan, formerly from UBS Group, to head its local private bank unit. “We have gone through a three-year journey of re-establishing our presence in Singapore,” Tan said. A new booking centre in the country shows the bank’s long-term commitment to the region, she added.

Barclays currently runs booking centres in six locations, including India, the UK and Switzerland. The firm’s statement made no mention of Hong Kong, long seen as a financial hub rival to Singapore.

The lender’s private bank client assets and liabilities climbed to almost £202 billion (S$341 billion) as at September, from about £199 billion in the preceding quarter, according to the bank’s third-quarter presentation. BLOOMBERG

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