Barclays will treble its individual wealth management business

The deal will create created the UK's largest private client investment business with �21.4bn of assets under management.

It will also treble the number of individuals Barclay's manages money for, adding around 116,000 accounts to its existing 45,000-strong portfolio.

But Barclays has refused to say whether jobs will be affected.

Under the deal, Barclays will gain around 1,200 staff from Gerrard in regional offices around the UK.

A statement said the acquisition met one of Barclays' strategic priorities to build a "leading UK and European wealth and asset management business".

'Substantial benefits'

It added: "Barclays and Gerrard are two complementary businesses which share the objective of offering clients a fully integrated wealth management service."

Hasan Askari, chairman of Old Mutual Financial Services, Gerrard's owner, said: "We believe Barclays would be a more natural owner of the business, enabling Gerrard to fully realise its potential as well as deliver substantial benefits both to clients and employees."

Old Mutual, which reported a drop in earnings for the first six months of 2003 in August, has been restructuring its UK operations. The Gerrard sale follows the sell off of its UK brokerage business.

In the year to June 30, Gerrard generated revenues of around �100m and pre-tax profits in the region of �3m.

Gerrard Private Bank, which operates offshore, is not part of the agreement and will retain the rights to the brand for 12 months.