Q1: How did the business perform in 2025, and what drove its growth over the past year? Looking ahead, what are your main priorities and strategic plans for 2026?

In February 2024, Barclays announced a three-year plan to create a simpler, better, and more balanced bank. As one of the bank’s five key divisions, our private bank and wealth management (PBWM) business is an integral part of Barclays’ growth ambitions. 

In 2025, PBWM maintained strong momentum, underpinned by disciplined execution and continued investment in talent and technology. 

In Singapore, we delivered record net new asset growth in 2025, driven by net new client acquisitions through our “one bank” strategy and flows across global wealth corridors. Our strategic hires in senior talent, including bankers and portfolio managers, have strengthened our coverage and service offerings for ultra high net worth (UHNW) and family office clients. Close collaboration with our investment bank has also enabled us to deliver integrated, tailored solutions for clients with more complex needs. These efforts have deepened client relationships and accelerated business growth.

Looking ahead, our key priority is launching the private bank booking centre in Singapore in 2026. This milestone will be a key enabler of our private bank international strategy, where we look to support UHNW and family office clients globally across key financial hubs. Our Singapore booking centre will also enable us to better support our Asian clients, their families, and the next generation with local booking capabilities and an expanded proposition and product suite. As we prepare for this launch, we will continue to invest in talent and technology across PBWM for our next phase of growth.

Q2: With artificial intelligence increasingly shaping the wealth industry, how has the firm leveraged technology and AI to transform processes and enhance value for both clients and the back office? What key technology upgrades were introduced in 2025, and what are your digital priorities for 2026 and beyond?

For us, AI is not about adding another tool to the stack. It is about integrating intelligence into the way we work so that processes become simpler, capacity is freed up, and our bankers can focus on what matters most: building relationships and delivering advice that is more responsive and precise. AI complements human expertise rather than replacing it, acting as a force multiplier that helps advisors spend more time on strategic conversations while technology takes care of routine tasks.

This approach guides how we are embedding AI in our business. We have technology experts across the bank focused on harnessing AI to deliver impact today and build capabilities for tomorrow. For example, in 2025, our group innovation team deployed Copilot across Barclays, empowering colleagues to communicate, research and ideate in new ways. 

Within our PBWM business, we have an innovation centre based in London with a mandate to reimagine how we work through AI. This team adopts an agile approach, experimenting with smaller projects and scaling those that deliver meaningful impact.

We are exploring use cases across these four key areas:

• Front office productivity: Equipping bankers with tools that make client engagement more efficient and insightful.
• Operational efficiency: Streamlining workflows to reduce manual effort and improve turnaround times.
• Risk and compliance: Strengthening monitoring and guidance to support regulatory requirements across jurisdictions.
• Client insights and business development: Using AI to better understand client needs and deliver more personalised reporting.

We have seen encouraging results so far and will continue to accelerate digitisation in 2026 with a focus on improving client experience and strengthening operational resilience.

Q3: With regulatory scrutiny and compliance requirements intensifying across the wealth industry, what updates can you share on how your firm is strengthening governance and compliance frameworks? How are you proactively managing risks while ensuring a seamless experience for clients?

As we prepare to launch our Singapore booking centre, we are prioritising key areas such as anti-money laundering and sales and suitability controls to ensure we meet the highest standards. To support this, we have been investing in talent across our legal, compliance, and financial crime functions to strengthen risk management and controls for our business. At the same time, we are focused on balancing rigorous oversight with a seamless client experience.

One way we achieve this is by improving operational effectiveness and introducing automation and AI where appropriate. These enhancements help us maintain robust controls while simplifying processes and ensuring a seamless client experience.

Q4: The private banking industry saw a plethora of leadership and structural changes in 2025. Looking into 2026, what are your key priorities for attracting and retaining talent across the front, middle, and back office? Are there plans for new hires in key markets?

Our people strategy is a top priority as we prepare to launch our Singapore booking centre and set the stage for growth. We have strategically expanded our team, with plans to further increase headcount in 2026 as we build out our booking centre capabilities. Hiring is already underway across the front, middle, and back office, and we will continue at pace into next year. 

In the front office, we have started to assemble our leadership team, having recently appointed team leaders for global clients, Southeast Asia, and North Asia. We will continue to hire senior market leaders and private bankers as we expand our Asia coverage teams to support the new booking centre. We also plan to strengthen our Investment teams with key leadership appointments.

As we look to attract talent, what has resonated well with many people has been our strong brand, exciting growth story, and our collaborative culture. As we grow and bring in new colleagues, we are focused on embedding our values and culture while embracing new thinking, fresh ideas, and innovation. 

To support this, we have launched global induction and culture-building programmes, including our advisor academy, which equips advisors with deep product knowledge, advisory skills, and reinforces our values and culture from day one. Beyond onboarding, we actively engage colleagues to understand their needs, share ideas, and co-create solutions. These conversations focus on how each colleague can contribute to making Barclays Private Bank Singapore a great place to work.

Our commitment is clear: to create an environment where talent thrives, innovation is encouraged, and collaboration defines how we work.