Barclays has about 8,000 employees working in wealth management globally and a spokesperson said in the short term there may be a dip in these numbers but that in the medium term this would stabalise.

The spokesperson said the decision to “pull out of prospecting” wealth management services in the 130 or so countries was about reducing complexity in the business.

He added that increased regulatory hurdles, expense and the reputational risk of operating in some of these countries were other reasons for the decision.

Barclays will now be focussing on the 70 or so markets where it will continue to offer wealth management services, markets the spokesperson said account for 86% of global wealth.