Barclays has announced the appointment of Neel Laungani as Head of Financial Sponsors for Asia Pacific. In this new role, Laungani will lead the financial sponsors franchise in the region, focusing on transaction origination and execution, as well as providing strategic coverage for key clients. He will work closely with other bankers across regions to support clients and make use of Barclays’ global capabilities.
Laungani will be based in Hong Kong and report regionally to Avinash Thakur, Head of Investment Banking, Asia Pacific, and functionally to Christian Oberle, Global Head of Financial Sponsors.
“I am delighted to welcome Neel to Barclays. His appointment emphasises our commitment to growing our Investment Banking franchise and our ability to attract high quality talent from the industry,” said Avinash Thakur. “As a top five global financial sponsors franchise, we have the global reach and sector depth across the world’s largest financial centres, which is a key differentiator to our clients. Neel will be instrumental in growing our Advisory and ECM activities with sponsor clients – one of our key priorities - by drawing on the full strength of Barclays.”
Laungani brings nearly three decades of investment banking experience. He started his career at Lehman Brothers, where he spent over 14 years and became Managing Director and Head of TMT in APAC. He has held senior roles at Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered, and Deutsche Bank. Most recently, he was Managing Director and Head of Financial Sponsors Coverage for APAC at Credit Suisse, as well as Vice-Chairman of TMT Coverage in the region.
Barclays has been present in Asia Pacific for more than 50 years. The bank supports corporations and financial institutions across major markets such as Australia, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Mainland China, Singapore, and Taiwan. Its services include cross-border investment banking needs and connections to capital markets globally. Barclays also operates a growing private bank business in Asia Pacific with operations in India and Singapore.
The Barclays Global Service Centre (BGSC), located across multiple cities in India, provides business solutions for technology, operations, and functions supporting its worldwide businesses.
Recent developments at Barclays in Asia Pacific include several leadership appointments: Joseph Lee was named Head of High Touch Sales Trading for Asia Pacific in July 2025; Paul Johnson became Head of Equities for Asia Pacific in January 2025; Abhay Kumar Sinha was appointed Co-Head of Credit Trading for Asia Pacific in January 2024; Naohiko Baba became Chief Japan Economist and Head of Japan Research that same month; Denise Wong took on the role of Head of Sustainable and Impact Banking for Asia Pacific in October 2023.
Barclays has also made significant investments such as a capital injection into India’s growth worth over INR 2,300 crore (£210m) announced in March 2025 (https://www.barclays.in/important-information/press-releases/barclays-bank-invests-in-indias-growth-with-a-capital-injection-of-over-inr-2300-crore.html). In November 2024 it announced plans to establish a new Private Banking booking centre in Singapore (https://home.barclays/news/press-releases/2024/11/barclays-to-establish-new-private-banking-booking-centre-in-singapore/).
Barclays’ regional leadership includes Jaideep Khanna heading its operations in Asia Pacific alongside leading its Global Markets business; Avinash Thakur leads Investment Banking; Praveen Kumar oversees BGSC.
The bank states its vision is “to be the UK-centred leader in global finance,” operating through five divisions that include consumer banking within the UK as well as corporate banking services worldwide.