As the two companies bring the curtain down on a cooperation agreement, Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is said to be hiring in the region of 20 private bankers from Barclays in Japan.
Barclays has been scaling back its operations in Japan as well as in other financial hubs in Asia as part of a strategy of cutting costs to boost profitability. The alliance in Japan which dates back to 2010, will now see the U.K. bank dilute its wealth-management business in the country.
The bankers being let go by Barclays will join the brokerage unit of SMBC Nikko in April, said Kouichi Shibata, a spokesman for SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo. «Bloomberg» reported that SMBC Nikko will pay as much as 12 billion yen to Barclays to terminate the partnership.
The British bank also cut about 100 positions in Japan as it withdrew from the equity business in the nation.
Disposal of Non Core Units
Barclays will continue to provide Sumitomo Mitsui with financial products for its wealth business.
Under the leadership of Jes Staley, Barclays Group CEO, the under pressure bank has been accelerating the rundown of Barclays «Non-Core» units.
Barclays Asian Exit
finews.asia reported in April 2016 when Singaporean bank OCBC announced to the local Stock Exchange that its wholly-owned private banking subsidiary, Bank of Singapore, had entered into an agreement to acquire the Wealth and Investment Management business of Barclays Bank PLC in Singapore and Hong Kong.
$13 billion in Assets under Management (AUM) was successfully transferred to Bank of Singapore, resulting in a purchase price, which was set at 1.75 percent of the AUM transferred upon completion, of $227.5 million.
The price was lower than originally agreed due to a number of high performing bankers and their clients, not moving to Bank of Singapore.
