IIFL Capital hires four Barclays bankers to expand wealth business
MUMBAI: Fairfax-controlled IIFL Capital Services Ltd. is stepping up its push into wealth management, hiring four senior private bankers from Barclays Plc to target ultra-high-net-worth families, business promoters and non-resident Indians.
Neeraj Pandey, Subir Didwania, Kunal Kapadia and Vivek Makim have joined IIFL Capital’s wealth unit as senior executives, the company said on Monday. They will lead the expansion of its domestic wealth business and its Global Indian division, which manages cross-border assets for Indian families.
Pandey, who will anchor the Global Indian business, spent more than seven years at Barclays leading a team focused on high-net-worth individuals and family offices. Didwania spent two decades at Barclays, most recently as a director overseeing corporate and family office relationships. Kapadia previously worked at Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Edelweiss before joining Barclays, while Makim spent 10 years at Barclays Private Bank India after stints at DSP Merrill Lynch and HSBC Private Bank.
“Talent is the ultimate differentiator in financial services. By welcoming experienced private banking professionals to IIFL Capital, we are strengthening our capabilities, deepening client relationships, and accelerating our growth ambitions,” joint chief executive Prakash Bulusu told Mint.
The appointments build on a broader expansion that began in June 2024, when IIFL Capital named former Citibank executives Raghav Gupta and Bulusu as joint chief executives of its wealth business, alongside Amit Srivastava as senior managing partner for investments.
The expansion comes as the business gains scale. According to IIFL Capital’s 2026 annual report, revenue from wealth management and financial product distribution rose 12% year-on-year to ₹572 crore, accounting for nearly 22% of the company’s total revenue.
AUM target
In March, founder Nirmal Jain said IIFL Capital aimed to increase its assets under management (AUM), which stood at ₹60,000 crore at the end of fiscal year 2026 (FY26), by 80-100% over the following two years. The company had added about 60 relationship managers in the preceding 18 months and planned to recruit another 120.
The hiring drive coincides with a change in ownership at the financial services firm. In May, the board approved a ₹2,000 crore preferential share issue to Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd at ₹350 a share, making Fairfax the controlling shareholder.
Fairfax plans to place IIFL Capital under a wholly owned subsidiary after completing its proposed ₹52,878 crore acquisition of IDBI Bank Ltd.
IIFL Capital’s recruitment drive comes as competition intensifies in India’s wealth management market, with global institutions including Barclays, HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc also expanding their frontline advisory teams.
The hiring of senior bankers from Barclays follows the European lender's plans to cut around 5,000 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, this year as part of a technology-driven cost-cutting effort. The cuts were announced as Barclays reported third-quarter profit of £2.3 billion ($3.08 billion), up 12% from a year earlier but below analyst expectations, amid weaker-than-expected performance by its investment banking division.
Lenders worldwide, including Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Mizuho, have collectively announced more than 35,000 job cuts since October last year, as automation increasingly affects roles.