-- Margaret Doyle is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are her own --
By Margaret Doyle
LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Barclays' new-look approach to asset management after last week's deal to sell BGI to BlackRock is that it no longer makes sense to make its own funds. Instead, by retaining a 19.9 percent stake in the enlarged group, it will simply sell the BlackRock funds to its own clients. The logical conclusion of this approach is that the more clients it has to whom it can sell these funds, the better.
That is one of the reasons why Bob Diamond wants to grow Barclays Wealth into one of the top five global wealth managers. Following the crisis, wealthy clients may take a bit more persuading before putting their money with a universal bank.
Turmoil in the markets has allowed Barclays to make acquisitions. The Lehman deal gave Barclays $30 billion of private client assets in the United States almost overnight.
Tom Kalaris, chief executive of Barclays Wealth, is on an Asian tour this week, trying to find ways for Barclays to tap into the region's vast and growing pools of wealth.
One obvious way to do this would be to tie up with Sumitomo Mitsui, a Barclays investor, so that Kalaris's salesforce could sell BlackRock funds to its clients. This strategy may make sense for Barclays, especially given the disarray among Swiss banks, which have traditionally dominated private banking and wealth management. They have been harmed by their own poor investments and by a tightening up of anti-tax avoidance rules around the world.
However, the travails of UBS, in particular, offer a cautionary tale for the world's rich. In the past, few have questioned the wisdom of depositing funds with huge universal banks. UBS, in particular, made a virtue of its size and solidity. However, the very stability engendered by UBS's vast private banking deposits helped fuel inadvertent risk-taking that led to huge losses in its investment bank. Were it not for the intervention of the Swiss government, UBS depositors could have lost much of their wealth.
Like other big banks, Barclays will find in future it harder to persuade wealthy clients that its size is a virtue.
A further worry for rich clients is that they offer a tempting prospect for the investment banking whizzes to sell complex, opaque and expensive structured products to. Banks are reporting that clients are shifting away from such products.
However, as memories of the crisis recede, it will be hard for them to resist the blandishments of a "relationship manager" who supposedly has their interests at heart. Better for the rich to put themselves out of temptation's way by putting their money with an institution that is burdened with fewer conflicts of interest.
(Author biography:)
(Edited by David Evans)