Barclays scraps full wealth management service for sub-£500k clients

Barclays is to stop offering a full-scale wealth management service to clients with between £100,000 and £500,000, as part of a scaling back of its global wealth division.

However, clients will still be able to access a "lighter touch" new segment of the business called Private Clients, according to Reuters. The move comes as the firm's wealth arm is planning to exit 130 countries by 2016 as part of an effort to focus on profitable markets. Barclays has around 8,000 employees working in wealth management globally. A spokesperson said in the short term there may be a dip in these numbers but this would stabilise in the medium term. The spokesperson said the decision to "pull out of prospecting" wealth management services in certain countries was about...