British bank Barclays pulled back heavily on Asia, eyeing China for investment bank's expansion, said the bank's CEO Jes Staley at the Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. 

Barclays is looking to build on its small presence in China, while continuing to invest in capital markets, an area that has brought in strong growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Staley said.  

"Incrementally, we would like to put more into China," he said.

Staley said, like a lot of foreign banks, the bank has to consider to open a broker dealer on the Chinese mainland. Without giving more details, he added, "Overall, we are in a good place."

Besides escalating engagement in China, the bank will continue to invest in Europe, particularly with their corporate bank, according to the CEO.

He also hinted to return normality for dividends after a year without payments at the request of the UK's central bank the Bank of England. 

Last month, the bank announced it was resuming dividends within limits set by the central bank, along with a 700-million pounds ($972 million) buyback. 

Suspending payments was "a very tough decision," Bloomberg cited Staley as saying. "You want dividends to be predictable and you want them to improve progressively over time. We need to reset that plan."

In terms of dealing with bad loans during the pandemic, Staley said the bank will see how the economy performs this year before releasing 4.8 billion pounds it has set aside.