UK banking and wealth management group Barclays is reported to be in advanced talks to sell its asset-management arm to US-based BlackRock, the giant money manager, for more than $10 billion.

Barclays’ asset manager, Barclays Global Investors, operates the iShares brand, the world’s biggest provider of exchange traded funds, which have grown to be a large component of equity, bond and other markets in recent years.

Barclays, which unlike some of its UK banking peers has not received taxpayers’ money to bolster its balance sheet, has been looking to spin off some assets, such as BGI. The desire for banks to shed certain assets for capital purposes is seen by analysts as an important driver of merger and acquisition activity in the investment management sector this year and the next.

In a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange, Barclays said there was “no certainty” that any talks it had entered with various parties would lead to a different result from its agreement, on 9 April, to sell iShares to the CVC private equity group.

Barclays said it had received other proposals for iShares and the broader BGI business and has been in talks with “a number of parties, including with Blackrock, about both iShares and BGI”.