Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management has signed on four former Barclays W&IM professionals to join their team in Miami. Diego Canalda, Roman Meyerhans, Narciso Munoz and Diego De La Lama joined Deutsche Bank Securities at the end of last January, as bank sources confirmed to Funds Society.
The team that has just landed in the German company’s offices in Miami shall manage mainly the Latin American clients. Furthermore, last December, Barclays Wealth & Investment Management reached an agreement with Santander Private Banking to transfer their Latin American business to the Spanish bank, always “subject to the consent of affected customers and staff,” confirmed the British firm to Funds Society.
This move by Barclays conforms to the new strategyof reducing the complexity of certain business areas, which was made public in September 2013. Since then, and as part of this strategy, the division of W&IM Barclays is proceeding to reduce the number of regions, among which are those of Latin America and the Caribbean, in which it provides services to clients. Last September, Barclays announced the closure of 100 private banking centers, five booking centers, and the downsizing of its workforce worldwide.
Two years earlier, in 2011, the British company threw itself entirely into increasing its client base in Latin America and the Caribbean, and hired a number of U.S. professionals for the task, including Narciso Muñoz, amongst others.
Canalda, with over 15 years’ experience, assumed the post of Managing Director. Before joining Barclays Wealth in Miami as director in 2008, he worked at Lehman Brothers for ten years.
Meanwhile, Muñoz, CFA with 20 years’ experience in the financial sector, worked at HSBC Private Bank International before joining Barclays Wealth Management in Miami in October 2011. Muñoz, part of the group who joined Barclays at a time when the British bank was firmly committed to boosting its Latin American business, joins Deutsche Bank Securities as Director.
De la Lama, also from Barclays W&IM, will assume the duties of Assistant Vice President. De la Lama has also worked at HSBC Private Bank, UBS Wealth Management and Intercam Securities.
Deutsche Asset & WM provides service to 180,000 clients from 130 offices in APAC, Europe and the Americas. It has 298,000 million dollars in assets under management from private banking clients, and the company employs 900 professionals dedicated to private banking and high-net-worth clients.