Barclays builds up Asia business, sees growth in India, Australia

Barclays, which recently made big investments in India and Australia and set up a Taiwan subsidiary in July, is evaluating entering new markets but is focused on building up its franchises, its top regional executive said.

The British lender has been re-building its Asian business after a global restructuring in 2016, which took a heavy toll on its operations in the region, leading to job cuts, exits from many markets and the shutdown of its Asian cash-equities unit.

“For now, we have our hands full. The macroeconomic environment is also not one that really favours aggressive investment at this point in time,” Jaideep Khanna, who heads Barclays’ Asia Pacific business told Reuters in an interview.

“Are we done with investing and building a platform? Absolutely not. So what compelled us to go into Australia and Taiwan may in the future require us to go into new markets, but I don’t see that happening in 2023,” Khanna said. Reuters

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