Barclays’s private banking unit in India expects its business to expand by a third over the next three years as the UK-listed bank aims to grow rapidly in the country, a senior executive said, according to Reuters.

Barclays, which has about 130 employees in India’s private banking business, also plans to raise the headcount by 20 per cent to 25 per cent this year, its India wealth unit chief executive Satya Bansal told the news service.

“The market is quite buzzing with activity despite the fact that there are some headwinds in terms of the overall mood in the market,” Bansal is reported to have said.

“We are looking for a compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent to 35 per cent in India for the next three years on a higher base,” he said. His remarks referred to assets under management.

As regularly pointed out by this and other publications, the Asia region is growing rapidly as a wealth management revenue driver for many of the world’s major banking groups, with firms such as HSBC, UBS, Citigroup, Julius Baer, Standard Chartered and Barclays vying for a slice of the business.

It is not just the domestic Indian market that is important. A number of banks are pitching to win business from non-resident Indians, an expat market. The ultra high net worth non-resident Indian community is collectively worth some $465 billion, according to recent research from Wealth-X. The same organisation has estimated there are around 20,000 ultra high net worth Indians.

Barclays launched its Indian private banking unit in late 2008. Bansal is quoted saying that its business has expanded by more than 50 per cent annually so far on a relatively smaller base, Bansal said.

The service quoted a report by Celent, the consultancy, saying that assets under management in the sector will rise to $1.2 trillion by 2014.