Barclays has appointed Marc Hakim as director for its wealth and investment management division in the Middle East and North Africa.

He will be responsible for developing and servicing high and ultra high net clients in the region, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Hakim joins from Swiss private bank Julius Baer, where he was executive director for the Middle East region. He has over 20 years of experience in the private banking and management industry and has also held senior positions at ING Private Bank and Credit Suisse.

"The Middle East and North African regions remain an important focus for the wealth and investment management division's growth strategy. With the recent addition to the team, we have substantially complemented our strong existing set-up," said Rory Gilbert, managing director and head of wealth and investment management in the Middle East and North Africa.

In other recent developments, earlier this month the wealth and investment arm of UK-listed banking group Barclays – which recently announced top-level management changes – said it made an adjusted pre-tax profit of £60 million ($91.6 million) in the first three months of 2013, a 20 per cent rise from a year ago.