BARCLAYS said that it is gaining market share in Asia from some US rivals after it hired almost a dozen senior sales and trading staff in the past year to accelerate the buildout of various business lines.

The additions include six directors for its macro unit trading currencies and rates who were hired from rivals including Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup. The UK bank also added two managing directors for its equity derivatives, private credit and distressed debt operations, head of markets for Asia-Pacific Hossein Zaimi said in an interview from Hong Kong.

The new hires contributed to a 2.5 per cent boost in revenue last year for the Asia global markets business, while the macro and equities units jumped 4 per cent, a source said, asking not to be identified because the company does not share Asia numbers. That compares with an 18 per cent decline for the markets business globally, according to a public filing.

“Most Asian clients want to deal more with non-US banks because of their desire for diversification,” Zaimi noted. “At the same time, they also need someone that is as good as US banks.”

The firm is on a growth trajectory in Asia, with markets revenue hitting a record in 2023 for the third consecutive year, the source said. Barclays’s Asia business as a percentage of its total markets operation is now on par with bigger Wall Street rivals on that basis, Zaimi said, without providing numbers.

Barclays sees itself as Europe’s last-remaining global investment bank and has pledged to use that unique position to boost its return on tangible equity to 10 per cent this year and to 12 per cent by 2026. That metric stood at 12.3 per cent for the first quarter.

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Barclays is also benefitting from the flow of Japanese money into the US to invest in Treasury bills, interest-rate swaps, mortgage-backed securities and equities. Strong appetite is also coming from US clients into Asia, particularly India, Japan and Australia, where the bank has a strong presence, he said.

Even as the bank expands in Asia, it is planning job cuts that will involve several hundred staffers in global markets, research and investment banking, sources said in March.

Heightened geopolitical tensions may lead to a higher risk of US regulatory changes and sanctions that will affect global banks abroad and increase counter-party risk. The more stringent capital rules in the US may also prompt clients to diversify their banking relationships with non-US banks since some lenders are not able to provide as much financial support as they used to, Zaimi explained.

Private credit

Zaimi, who will complete his second year at the firm next month, has beefed up macro sales and trading capabilities in emerging markets. The bank is in the process of hiring two more senior traders after poaching Madhusudan Aggarwal from Goldman Sachs in February to help its foreign exchange business for Asia markets outside Greater China.

The bank has also identified private credit as a growth area and hired Abhay-Kumar Sinha from Deutsche Bank to lead the business. Private credit investors in Asia are deploying 90 per cent of their money in India – an increasingly attractive destination for manufacturing and investment – and Australia, given its established legal framework and broader range of investment opportunities, Zaimi said.

Barclays aims to keep boosting revenue from its prime financing business in the next three years and will continue building out equity derivatives after hiring Jean-Baptiste Patois in November. BLOOMBERG