Barclays Wealth first half results released today weren’t particularly spectacular. But nor did they reveal any unpleasant surprises suggesting Britain’s biggest wealth manager looks to be heading in the right direction.

The unit managed to gather enough money from existing and new clients to see net inflows swell to £3.5bn, which helped to offset a fall in the overall assets under management. Pre-tax profit edged up, albeit by only 5% year-on-year, and the unit's high cost-income ratio improved to 71% from 79% at the end of 2007.