Duncan MacIntyre, CEO UK, at Lombard Odier, which is located in the heart of London’s Mayfair, tells Ronan McCaughey why the UK’s capital city is so important for the private bank, and how it plans to continue to building the team in London.
Amid uncertainity about Brexit, MacIntyre strikes an optimistic note for the future and says London’s location means it will continue to be a very attractive wealth centre.
Go deeper with GlobalData
PBI: How is Lombard Odier using technology to engage with clients?
Duncan MacIntyre (DM): DM: We have a fantastic system called My LO which offers complete tablet and phone based access to clients. It allows our clients to access all of our research, create and export a consolidated view of portfolios, customised reporting and a secure messaging system. The platform is designed to improve clients’ interactions with the bank, rather than replace any direct contact with their relationship manager. It is not an advice platform, but solely designed to provide clients with greater interrogation and oversight of their investments. No transactions take place on the platform.
My LO is based on our in-house private banking platform. We have been developing our own banking technology for 25 years and are currently working on the next generation. We have made a strong commitment to it, as it is such a key strength for us. This will clearly involve some different and new tools but I can’t give you much more detail than that, at this stage.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataBeing a Swiss bank, we are obsessed with security. We have full control of My LO and so it is completely ring fenced and entirely secure. One key benefit of My LO is that a client may have portfolios in different locations, but with My LO they can view portfolio performance in one place.
PBI: What is the wealth bracket for a UHNW individual to become a client of Lombard Odier?
DM: Our base minimum is CHF5m ($5.03m). Beyond CHF10m, we can add real value because we are able to do things other institutions cannot.
We deliberately do not commoditize wealth offerings for clients. When a wealth offering is commoditized, the only way to make that successful is to build scale.
PBI: What is Lombard Odier’s business strategy going forward?
DM: In the UK, we have four principal coverage areas which include Russian and Middle East clients, Francophone and Germanic clients, UK clients and an External Asset Managers business.
I am excited about the External Asset Managers business. Technology is a very important component of the future and I do believe that there are many banks out there with small asset management businesses that really need us and the award-winning banking infrastructure we have created.
The other thing we are doing is really strengthening our UK business and plan to continue building the team based in London.
We have been in the UK since 1973 and there is a real group of clients in London that look at the world in a very international way.
Those are the clients that we think we can serve very well.
London is a very attractive wealth centre and I predict it will become the biggest offshore/onshore centre of the world.
It’s perfectly located between so many different time zones and areas and there is the rule of law and there is an established infrastructure.
So am I worried about the wealth management business here? Not at all, and we are seeing big demand.
With the inherent wealth of the clients that we have they tend to have their core wealth relationship in London. As a result, we don’t have a presence in the UK regions. That is a strategic decision because we are not trying to compete in the retail space.
PBI: If the UK crashes out of the EU without a Brexit deal, would this not be very harmful for the private banking and wealth management market?
DM: Yes, but remember there is not very much cross border European private banking.
For financial services as an industry it absolutely [no deal on Brexit] would not be great because we provide much of the infrastructure for European finance.
Where the wealth management industry tends to be successful is where clients use London or the UK as their financial centre.
PBI: What are the most important factors in building a long-term relationship with clients?
DM: To form really good private banker relationships you have to be emotionally engaged.
You can’t form a relationship based on: is my hedge fund bigger than yours?
That’s not a true private client relationship, that’s a B2B conversation. We want to engage people on what their values are and what they want to stand for. You have to reflect those values back yourself.
I think that goes back to the nature of being a private business – you can see those values reflected through the partners in the way that the business itself is run.
It’s run in a sustained way, 222 years is not a short time to be in the private banking industry.
And to have ridden all those crises means that you have thought a lot about the way you respond to things. I think clients benefit from that actually.
