Barclays Wealth began operations in India three years ago and through its 130-member team it covers about 1,000 families in the region and plans to expand its client base by 10-15% every year.
The british bank currently has five branches in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai and now wants to turn its attention towards these smaller towns where the wealth sector has excellent growth prospects.
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The newly targeted centres on the bank’s list include cities such as Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan; Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat in Gujarat; Coimbatore in Kerala; Tirupur in Tamil Nadu and Vizag in Andhra Pradesh.
"There is a huge amount of wealth in the tier II and tier III cities. It is spread across sectors like spices export in Kerala or garment manufacturing in Tirupur, apart from sectors like real estate and IT/ITES," Satya Narayan Bansal, India chief executive of Barclays Wealth, told Financial Chronicle.
A variety of businesses – retail, outsourcing, IT and real estate investments and development – have ventured to tier II and tier III cities in India.
The growth of these extension cities into fully developed urban centres has seen many overnight millionaires, especially due to the appreciation in the value of real estate.
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By GlobalDataNewly minted real estate millionaires are one segment that the UK-based bank is planning to target.
"Many farmers turned millionaires are still relishing in their newly acquired wealth. When it comes to turning their agricultural wealth to business wealth, there would be scope for players like us. So, the opportunities are large," said Bansal.
But there is one dark cloud on the bank’s future horizon and that is the limited talent pool available in the private banking space, which according to Bansal could pose a challenge for expanding in India.
"The limited talent available could pose a challenge for us. But, we are also exploring opportunities to get talent from outside India, like NRI investment bankers willing to come back home," he said.
