Barclays Wealth could contribute as much as £500 million (around $762 million) in pre-tax profits to its parent banking group within five years, more than three times the £145 million earned by the division in 2009, the Financial Times said, according to unnamed sources at the firm.

“We can be a lot bigger,” said Thomas Kalaris, head of Barclays Wealth. “The Barclays brand can carry a much bigger wealth management business than it does.”

These comments echo remarks Mr Kalaris made to WealthBriefing last month in a conference call after Barclays Wealth announced its results for last year. As revealed at the time, Barclays Wealth is spending an additional £350 million to expand its business, which will involve raising the number of private bankers serving high net worth clients.

Mr Kalaris told the newspaper that Barclays Wealth had about 5 per cent of the UK market. “We think there’s a lot more upside here in the UK,” he said.

He believes that he can achieve a ”step change” in the size of the division’s asset pool.