Barclays, the UK-headquartered private bank, has promoted a senior executive to lead its Greater China business.

Effective 1 October 2013, Carol Chen takes the helm as market head for Greater China, after serving as head of the Greater China desk in Singapore. For her new role, she relocates from the city-state to Hong Kong.

Chen joined the company in 2011 to establish Barclays' Greater China desk in the city-state. During her term, she built a strong team of bankers focused on the needs of high and ultra-high net worth clients across the region. Before that, she was managing director, desk head Taiwan International at UBS in Singapore and also covered the China client segment at HSBC Private Bank.

According to the recently published Barclays Wealth Insights report, high net worth individuals in Asian countries posted some of the fastest growths in wealth over the course of their lifetimes.

A good 51 per cent of the Singaporeans polled for the study said their wealth had accumulated rapidly in under a decade, followed by 27 per cent of the Chinese and 16 per cent of Hong Kong residents. Over one-third of respondents from Hong Kong said their riches grew fivefold in their lifetimes. The same was claimed by over 25 per cent of the Singaporeans.