Retail Banking News Updates, January 25th 2012

Barclays Wealth names Saudi head
Barclays Wealth, the UK lender's private bank, has named Faisal Shaker head of its business in Saudi Arabia. Shaker will report to Rory Gilbert, managing director, head of Middle East and North Africa. Prior to joining Barclays, Shaker was head of wealth management for Audi Capital Saudi Arabia.

Morgan Stanley sells wealth management unit
Morgan Stanley is selling its Quilter wealth management business for $273 million to private equity firm Bridgepoint. This is the second time it has sold the business in less than a decade, as Morgan Stanley first sold the business to Citigroup, and bought it back in 2009 when both Citigroup and Morgan Stanley merged their wealth management units.

HSBC to sell retail baking units in Central America
HSBC will be selling its retail banking units in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras to Colombian banking group Banco Davivienda. The sale of the businesses represents a continuation of a strategy the UK-based bank has employed to cut its portfolio of unprofitable global retail banking assets.

BAML to offer retail discounts online
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) will start testing a new service, called BankAmeriDeals, that will allow customers to obtain savings from retailers based on their previous spending patterns. The offers will be available through the bank's online banking website. The discounts will be awarded in the form of cash payments once a month.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker