By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Nupur Anand

NEW YORK Barclays hired Christian Oberle from JPMorgan Chase to oversee its relationships with private equity (PE)firms in the Americas region, Barclays confirmed on Friday.

Oberle will join the British bank as the head of its financial sponsors group in the Americas, and report to Jean-Francois Astier, who leads the group globally. Barclays has long wanted to grow its relationships in PE.

JPMorgan declined to comment. Oberle did not immediately respond to a phone call and voicemail seeking comment.

Oberle's hire comes at a time when Barclays is drawing up plans to cut hundreds of jobs in its domestic retail business and separately as part of its annual review of investment bankers' performance.

CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan installed new leaders atop the investment banking division this year. While the unit has added more than 20 managing directors, it has also seen a wave of departures.

Oberle's exit from JPMorgan comes months after Marco Caggiano, another former senior JPMorgan banker, left the U.S. bank to join rival Morgan Stanley as vice chairman of mergers and acquisitions.

Wall Street banks have cut thousands of employees in recent months in response to a slowdown in deals. The doldrums have also prompted veteran bankers to move from firms including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America to join large rivals or smaller competitors.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Diane Craft)