All articles by Dan Jones
Dan Jones
Thawing climate may suit private banks
But before the wealth industry can fully flourish in Russia, private bankers believe a further strengthening of the Russian legal environment providing certainty for personal assets must be implemented.While the trickle of wealth managers moving into Russia may now be turning into a flood, the current size of the onshore private banking industry remains miniscule, with estimates putting the figure at just $15 billion to $20 billion
The great post-Lehman reconstruction
The collapse of Lehman Brothers has called into question the long-term future of structured products, instruments which until recently had largely overtaken mutual funds as the private client investment product of choice Lehman Brothers was a significant player in the structured product market, constructing and guaranteeing products that were then marketed to clients at a host of private banks worldwide.The nature of Lehmans structured offerings is likely to have further exacerbated investor difficulties
ICICI gears up for the global push
The launch of the new ICICI Group Global Private Clients (GPC) division is not an overhaul of ICICIs wealth management operations but rather an acknowledgement of the difficulties private banks face in attempting to promote their brand on a global level and also to emulate their global strengths in their domestic market. Girish Nayak, head of this operation, which will be open to those with investable assets of $1 million or more with ICICI, said that ICICI has come to realise that the regulatory environment across the globe necessitated a fine-tuning of its wealth unit.
Understanding is key
Dan Jones spoke to Dr Steen Ehlern, head of Ferguson Partners Family Office, about the industrys philosophy.Dr Steen Ehlern, managing director of Ferguson, told PBI that private banks can learn lessons from the success the family office industry has enjoyed over the past decades.The key is humility and to really understand and respect clients for what they have achieved, he declares.For Ferguson, that humility is borne out not just in client relationships but also through the way it views its own role in the marketplace Ehlern is an advocate of third-party outsourcing, and does not see it necessary for family offices to overreach their own boundaries.Often, it is about co-ordinating and keeping the family together in terms of hard and soft factors, he says.Ferguson, a private multi-family office (MFO) headquartered in London and Zurich, has for its part its own core competencies centred around legal issues, structuring, set-ups, property and co-investment opportunities within its network of business owners.We have a structure and an optimisation as a family office, as well as nichespecialised real estate, consolidation and reporting
HSBC looks to craic the Irish
HSBC has announced it is to extend its private banking operation to Ireland, a country whose super-charged economy is now slowing Head of the new operation Rory Quinlan believes that opportunities are still there for the taking. Private bankers in Europe are having to adapt to working within the confines of slowing markets, with Ireland being a case in point
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Charting the right course
With its expertise and heritage centred round Asian markets, the bank is now rapidly expanding through both acquisitions and organic growth.Standard Chartered Private Bank was launched in May 2007 and has already amassed $35 billion in assets under management (AuM), in part due to its acquisition of American Express Bank, a deal completed in February 2008.Peter Flavel, global head of the Private Bank, says that the integration process is on target and claims there was no more strategically compelling private banking transaction available to us.American Express were strong in terms of their infrastructure while we on the other hand were very strong with out distribution network, Flavel explains, adding that Standard Chartered now benefits from a Geneva booking centre capability, wrap account functionality and trusts and fiduciary services
Steady as she goes
The Benelux region, hitherto buoyed by strong economic growth and a private banking market characterised by high levels of M&A activity, is now set for a period of reassessment as wealth managers look to carve a niche for themselves in a marketplace that has turned distinctly less bullish Datamonitor estimates that onshore liquid assets in Belgium and the Netherlands will grow from 667 billion ($1 trillion) in 2005 to 902 billion by 2010, while private banking in Luxembourg provides some six percent of the countrys GDP.
The hunt for the mega money
While the sheer size of the sprawling Citi empire has provided cause for concern over the past 12 months, leading CEO Vikram Pandit to instigate a restructuring programme, its reach is also key in servicing the needs of its billionaire clients. Akbar Shah, head of Megawealth, Asia-Pacific and region head for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei at Citi Private Bank, believes that Pandits changes are enabling it to improve its offerings to these ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs).
Wealthy families turn to the alternative
The gathering trend towards investment diversification among high net worth families, and other factors, may require them to look to external providers, but confidentiality concerns remain paramount among family offices that do not yet collaborate regularly with each other, let alone major financial institutions.Single family offices are looking to tilt their portfolio allocations in favour of alternative assets over the next three years as part of a deep-seated fine-tuning of investment priorities
Pioneering private banking
Growth rates in the CEE wealth markets of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have frequently outpaced those seen in the rest of Europe over the past few years, but the downturn now affecting Western Europe is likely to spread across to the East. That is likely to lead to further changes in a private banking sector that continues to wrestle with the question of how best to present itself to clients.