These are the 26 year-old IBD professionals Barclays wants now

It's illegal to advertise jobs by age in the UK, so you won't actually see any advertisements from Barclays calling for mid-20s IBD professionals. But this is what recruiters say the British bank needs - especially if they're UK natives. 

"Barclays is committed to hiring for its UK coverage business," says one M&A recruiter, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They've recruited the senior UK coverage staff and are now adding to the mid and junior ranks."

Barclays hired Phil Shelley from Goldman Sachs in February. Co-head of corporate broking at Goldman, Shelley will have a broader client-coverage role at Barclays. A month later, Barclays also hired Barry Meyers from J.P. Morgan as head of UK equity capital markets (ECM), starting July.

Recruiters say Barclays already hired a handful of juniors for its growing UK coverage team in April. And internal sources confirm that it's made offers to two or three more. "We are believe there are opportunities for growth and to take market share in the UK," says a Barclays spokesman. "As a firm we will always look at world class talent at any level that can add real value to the firm and improve our ability to better help our clients."

Barclays is already increasing its share of the UK market. Year-to-date in 2015, the bank ranks 8th for UK M&A deals with an 8.7% market share. Over the same period last year, it ranked 11th, with a market share of 4.9%.