Barclays has bolstered the corporate wealth advisory team within its corporate and employer solutions unit with the addition of James Wood and Liam Fearon.

Wood and Fearon, who join as corporate wealth advisors, will be advising entrepreneurs, SMEs and smaller corporate clients.

Wood, who is now based in Ipswich, was latterly a commercial financial planning advisor at HSBC. Fearon, who is now based in Birmingham, joins from RBS, where he had specialised in corporate financial planning.

Barclays has been busily building out its corporate wealth advisory unit, after having launched it earlier this year, and has made four appointments to it in recent months. These latest appointments underscore Barclays’ commitment to the entrepreneur and SME sector, the firm said in a statement.

The firm is also clearly keen to tap entrepreneurs and SMEs throughout the UK regions. Anthony Whittington, one of the four corporate advisors to join the unit earlier this year, is now based in Crawley, West Sussex, for example.

“The corporate wealth advisory unit was launched earlier this year to support entrepreneurs and SMEs to manage the risks relating to the people aspect of their businesses, whether that be through loan protection, key man insurance or shareholder protection.  Our experience tells us that business owners often ignore these risks and yet it can be these issues that have a negative impact on a firm’s growth,” Richard Phelps, head of corporate and employer solutions at Barclays, said in a statement.

Barclays has of course been in the headlines in recent days due to its appointment of a new chief executive to succeed former leader Bob Diamond, who resigned in July over the interbank rate-rigging scandal which saw the firm slammed with fines totalling £290 million (around $455 million) in June.

Antony Jenkins, who previously led Barclays' retail and business banking business, began in the top job last week. He has been a member of the group executive committee of Barclays since 2009.