Barclays nabs ex-Merrill ops exec for Middle East

FWR Staff

23 December 2008

British private bank names Steve Fedor COO for its oil-rich "MENA" regions. As part of a push into Asian and Middle Eastern markets, London-based Barclays has made former Merrill Lynch Steve Fedor "Front Office" COO for its private-banking business in its Middle Eastern and North African regions. Fedor reports to Soha Nashaat, CEO of Barclays Wealth in the Middle East and North Africa, and Grant Parkinson, head of operational support for Barclay's non-U.K. private-banking business. Infrastructure

Fedor spent 15 years working for Merrill in a variety of variety of product, platform management and infrastructure roles in New York and London. Before that, he worked at PNC Financial. "I am delighted that Steve has joined the Barclays Wealth team in the region," says Nashaat. "His superb track record and his expertise will be instrumental in building the business to an even higher level." As Front Office COO, Fedor will be responsible for providing, maintaining and upgrading operational support to Barclay's private bankers in trans-Saharan Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Fedor will be based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. iShares, the ETF arm of Barclays Global Investors, introduced three Shariah-compliant ETFs about a year ago. "Shariah" refers to a system of devising laws -- frequently touching on aspects of day-to-day life such as politics, business and contracts -- based on Islamic texts and traditions.

Barclays, which has created nearly 1,800 new wealth-management positions since early 2006 as part of an expansion in Europe and a push into Asia, recently hired ex-Citigroup private-client executive Steve Wong as head of its Hong Kong-based investment specialists group.

Barclays Wealth had total client assets of about $197 billion at the end of June 2008. -FWR

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