Profits at Barclays' wealth management division have dropped by two per cent in the first half of this year, but the department is still looking for new recruits. In recent weeks Barclays Private Clients has lost five private bankers to Credit Suisse Private Banking. Paul Rayner, the head of the unit's Middle Eastern operations, left two or three months ago according to a Barclays spokesman. He had spent 28 years at Barclays, 14 of them at the private banking group. Two other bankers from the same team, Su Wan Chung and Philip Crawford, "left on Rayner's coat tails", in the words of the bank. The new Middle Eastern head, Eric Lorenz who came from Merrill Lynch, was in situ before Rayner's departure. The head and deputy head of the Latin American team, based in London, have also left for Credit Suisse. Their names are Juan Carrizosa and Fermin Garcia-Romeu. These have been the most severe losses that the group has suffered since April, when 14 people on its Latin American team in Miami decamped to Coutts. A Barclays spokesman told Private Client Management: "What with Miami and Credit Suisse, we've recruited an extra ten per cent of staff. This figure takes in all staff including those who provide support, not just the private bankers. We have hired an extra 35 of them already this year." The resignations have come at a difficult time for BPC, which is in the middle of a restructuring process. BPC was launched on 25 June as a one-stop shop for HNWs; its components have been around for a long time and include Barclays premier banking service (the medium net worth market where individuals have to have liquid assets of £70,000 or earn £60,000 per annum) which has 125,000 UK customers; the private banking division (for true HNWs with £1m liquid assets); the stockbroking division; and the investment banking division. The premier banking division is at present a 'tied service', offering clients investment products from Legal & General in accordance with a deal Barclays struck early this year. BPC is planning to put a stop to this in the near future. The spokesman said that the premier banking service was going to offer independent financial advice, by the popular demand of its customers. He also expected that the process of merging the HR and administrative functions of BPC's components would "make the whole thing more efficient internally". It has also just been revealed that in the year to 31 June BPC's profits declined by two per cent. In view of the new division's troubles and the troubles of the private banking sector in general, Barclays is counting this as a piece of good news. "We weren't unhappy with this result in current market conditions because any firm that can hold its own is doing OK," said the spokesman. "When stock markets go volatile, HNW investors tend to withdraw from that business and invest in savings. They want to hold lots of cash instead of stocks, and where do they tend to place that cash? In banks. Because of our one-stop shop, Barclays has managed to hold on to money which in a slump would otherwise have gone elsewhere." Barclays' UK domestic private banking business accounts for 30 per cent of its total private banking profit. Its European private banking activities, which are run from Geneva, account for 25 per cent. Its offshore business accounts for 20 per cent and its South American business, run from the unit in Miami, which shed 14 bankers to Coutts, accounts for six per cent.