By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

ZURICH (Reuters) – Barclays

plans to enter four new European private banking markets in 2021, its regional manager for the business told Reuters.

Gerald Mathieu, who in September became Barclays’ private banking head for Europe outside Britain, said the British bank was looking to start up the business in France, Italy, Spain and Germany next year.

“These are the countries where we see a lot of opportunities, also because we have a very strong footprint of corporate and investment banking locally,” Mathieu said in an interview.

“The idea is to have a capital-light approach and work in very close collaboration with the investment bank locally, targeting family offices, ultra high net worth individuals, and some qausi-corporate or institutional clients.”

The bank said it was too early to disclose hiring plans.

Barclays, which does not separately report revenues or profits for private banking, maintains hubs for managing