Our History

Although we’re already the largest Wealth Management group operating in the UK, our services had previously been spread across different businesses. Individually strong, they have gained in strength by being brought together under the Barclays Wealth brand.

During a strategic review we realised that in order to expand our Wealth Management business, both in the UK and abroad, we needed to pull all our successes together under one recognisable brand. Barclays Wealth, therefore, draws on the strongest elements from the Barclays Group, Barclays Capital and Barclays Global Investor brands to create a unique new force in the Wealth Management marketplace.

Wealth Management is one of the fastest growing areas in financial services, and we believe there is no other financial institution in the world that has the products, the capability and the brand recognition required to conquer this market. The Barclays brand is known and trusted all around the globe, which gives us a huge advantage in the marketplace over a local, independent advisor or a smaller bank.

After the recent success with Barclays Capital and BGI, which have grown to become two of the Group’s biggest assets, we have now brought the same team-oriented approach to Barclays Wealth. We have a clear plan of what we want and how we’re going to achieve it. Just as importantly, we have committed significant investment capital for our products, platforms, client services and people development. We’ve already achieved an enormous amount, including segmenting our client base, developing a clear infrastructure and setting out our business and product strategies. We’ve also been identifying and recruiting talent and creating challenging career opportunities that bring out the best in each individual and we will continue to invest heavily in our HR systems to ensure we can recognise top performance.

Our focus on investment does not mean a sluggish approach to profitability – in the past two years, PBT (profit before tax) has almost doubled, from £108 million to £213 million. We have strong ambitions for growth, and aim to increase consistently our share of financial contribution to overall Barclays Group profits. With revenues breaking the billion-pound mark for the first time in 2006, we are making excellent progress.

It’s been an exhilarating time, but there are plenty more challenges ahead as we aim to become recognised as an authority on all aspects connected with the Wealth sector. If you know your future lies in financial services, this is your opportunity to join us on an incredible journey as we take the Barclays Wealth brand to new and unparalleled heights.