Barclays Wealth scraps private bankers for sub-£500,000 clients

Barclays Wealth has acted to cut its services for clients with less than £500,000, as it implements plans revealed last year.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, the bank wrote to clients at the end of last year, warning them they would lose their dedicated private banker. Instead sub-£500,000 clients will now see their investments managed by a central team, in the latest example of wealth managers trying to shed lower-net-worth clients. Businesses are acting to focus on ever-higher value clients because of increasing regulatory costs, which makes managing clients with smaller pots of money less profitable. The move comes after a cull of the bank's staff, with Barclays Wealth announcing last Septem...