Barclays is targeting further expansion in the Middle East and North Africa to cater to the increasing demand of investors for wealth management and investment banking services.
The strategic shift, will be led by Makram Azar, the bank’s chairman for the Middle East and North Africa, who also serves as the vice-chairman of Barclays’ global investment-banking arm, reports Bloomberg Businessweek.
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Azar said that in order to improve revenues from the region, the lender will have to "focus on three main businesses — investment banking, corporate banking and wealth management.
"These are core parts of our regional strategy as they play very well to our global strengths and serve the region’s growing wealth [base]," the publication quoted him as saying.
The bank agreed to sell its retail banking business in the UAE to Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank in April for an amount of $177m.
Azar opined that exiting the UAE retail banking business will enable Barclays to focus on its main businesses in the region.
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By GlobalDataThe Middle East and Africa generated nearly $6.8bn in revenue for the bank in 2013, which amounts to almost 15% of the total.
Bloomberg statistics cite that the UAE’s economy jumped 4.8% last year, which is the fastest pace recorded in seven years, and Azar is confident that the region’s income will escalate in double-digit figures for this year and beyond.
Moreover, Azar holds a positive stance on the fee pool in the Middle East recovering, saying: With the Saudi financial market opening and all the recent IPO activity in Dubai — all this should contribute towards improvement in the fee pool."
The lender is also focusing on lending to corporate and real estate clients, as well as looking to take advantage of the resurgent property market in Dubai.
