Strategy
Barclays Wealth Takes Aim At Japan's HNWI Market With Joint Venture Agreement
In a sign of its determination to break into a notoriously tough market, Barclays Wealth has formed a joint venture agreement with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Nikko Cordial Securities to provide wealth management services to high net worth individuals in Japan.
The JV will be called SMBC Barclays Wealth Division and will operate out of Nikko, leveraging the company’s operational platform as well as related service support, according to a statement by the firms.
“The services of the JV will be an ideal complement to SMBC’s current corporate banking and consumer banking dedicated offerings. High net worth clients of SMBC who will be referred to the JV are expected to benefit from the product expertise of Barclays and Nikko, and the broad range of products and investment solutions made available to them through open architecture,” the statement said.
Although still the world’s second largest economy, Japan has proven a difficult market for non-domestic banks to enter. In 2004, for example, Citigroup’s private bank was kicked out of the country for alleged financial wrongdoings. However, more recently, Credit Suisse has set up an office in the country to boost its wealth management operations there, while ANZ, the Australian banking group, set up an office in the country as announced in May.
In the Barclays Wealth JV announcement, the statement said the venture is co-headed by Yukihide Sakai (seconded by Barclays), Hisatsugu Yoshida (seconded by SMBC) and Kiyokazu Watanabe (from Nikko). The three JV heads will be jointly responsible for the development and marketing of private banking services of the JV, and the growth strategy of the business.
The JV is staffed by professionals from Barclays, SMBC and Nikko across a range of roles in sales marketing, investment services, product development, as well as infrastructure and operational support. Initially, the JV will concentrate on the provision of private banking services for high net worth individuals in Osaka, Tokyo and Yokohama, with gradual implementation in other areas.
