All articles by PBI Editorial
PBI Editorial
More banks set Asia growth plans
Ambitious hiring plans threaten to drive salaries even higher as hundreds more advisers are sought.Among banks setting out assertive plans for growth in Asia-Pacific, Morgan Stanley is to launch private wealth management services in India next year, representing its first onshore wealth foothold in Asia.Leslie Menkes, managing director of the banks Singapore-based regional wealth division, said his firm plans to hire around 100 private bankers
Family values attracting more wealth
Thats a blow to private banks that also want the business of the ultra-wealthy client, but at least they can pick up useful outsourcing business.Ultra-high net worth individuals are increasingly opting for independent family offices and the more comprehensive wealth solutions that they provide, according to US consultancy Cerulli. Its research shows that the largest family office in the US is Bessemer Trust, which had $48.3 billion in assets under advisement (AuA) as of 2006, representing growth of 12.9 percent since 2005.Many offices have experienced a much faster rate of growth, however
Creative chaos
Indias wealth management marketplace is in a state of chaos and that provides huge opportunities for players, from home and abroad, to win business in a rapidly evolving marketplace that could be worth $1 trillion by 2012. Private client assets under management (AuM) available to wealth managers in India will quadruple to some $1 trillion by 2012, according to new research that confirms the attractiveness of the Asian economy to the private banking business. Products, providers, distribution lines, client segmentation and the regulatory environment are all evolving simultaneously on the lines of developed economies. The resulting chaos is full of promising opportunities, declares US consultancy Celent, in a sweeping new analysis of the countrys personal wealth prospects.Currently, total AuM in organised Indian wealth management are estimated at $250 billion, and are growing at a rate reckoned to be 32 percent, Celent suggests.There is momentum towards more sophisticated customer segmentation, products and delivery channels, says Ravi Nawal, analyst at Celent and author of its new report.Personal wealth is being driven by Indias huge economic development
Wealth management head Krawcheck exits Citi
Krawcheck is understood to have been arguing for continued autonomy for Citi wealth operations, including retaining an open-architecture approach to client investments.The wealth unit, which has some $1.8 trillion of client assets under management globally, will now come under the control of Citis investment banking division as it attempts to more closely integrate various parts of the bank as well as cut costs.Significantly, Citis Smith Barney wealth arm is undertaking a number of structural changes now that Krawcheck is exiting
UBS wins ‘poaching’ injunction
In the bitterest legal battle in private banking in years, UBS has won the first stage of a campaign to stop former employees now at UK wealth startup Vestra Wealth from poaching its investment clients or the banks staff. High Court judge Justice Openshaw in early August granted UBS a court order to prevent five former UBS employees and their new employer, Vestra, from approaching any UBS wealth management or stockbroking clients or asking any more UBS employees to leave the bank to join the startup.
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Scaturro to lead Goldman wealth drive
Competition for high-end US clients with upwards of $20 million of assets is becoming intense, marked by the resurfacing of Peter Scaturro at Goldman Sachs in a top wealth role and the defection of additional senior executives fromUS Trust, now part of Bank of America.Peter Scaturro, who recently controversially left his position as chief executive of US Trust during its $3.3 billion acquisition by Bank of America (BofA), has joined Goldman Sachs, where he will be global head of its expanding private wealth management business.His appointment signals new competition for the ultra high net worth client with assets of $20 million and above, which both US Trust and Goldman Sachs target, according to New York bankers.This is the third senior role in wealth management for Scaturro, who is 47, in as many years
The Feds get tough on UBS
Birkenfield has alleged UBS helped wealthy Americans conceal $20 billion in assets and evade income tax.Officials in the Justice Departments tax division said in a statement that the US has been working co-operatively with UBS and the Swiss government to obtain the account information, but would seek enforcement if these negotiations were not successful.A UBS spokeswoman said the bank is working diligently with both Swiss and US government authorities.Tax experts believe that the involvement of the Swiss government and court action makes it virtually inevitable that UBS will accede to US demands for client disclosures, albeit in some agreed restricted formula
Private banks weathering the storm
The initial set of first-quarter results show the worlds leading private banks have emerged largely unscathed from the doom and gloom that has characterised 2008 thus far, though UBS remains an unsteady beacon at the top of the pile.Though UBS does not report until 6 May, asset write-downs of $37.5 billion have severely damaged the banks reputation, not least in its home market Yet write-downs are still stealing the headlines at UBSs competitors leading to many CEOs pointing to their private banking divisions as a source of strength.Merrill Lynch took a $6.5 billion hit on subprime and other assets but saw net inflows of $4 billion in its wealth management division, boosting net revenues by 8 percent to $3.6 billion.Similarly, Credit Suisse reported a CHF2.1 billion ($2.03 billion) net loss and CHF5.3 billion in net write-downs for the first quarter, but its wealth unit nonetheless saw net inflows of 13.5 billion over the same period
Wealth managers are the new superstars
While investment banking sell-side hiring has ground to a virtual standstill in the wake of the subprime implosion, asset and wealth management firms are now driving the demand for talent for the first time in memory, analysis shows.A survey by executive search company Russell Reynolds Associates found that demand for chief investment offices across the industry is now off the charts.The fevered search for wealth specialists comes as companies expand to meet expected growth opportunities posed by baby-boomer retirement in the US and, more generally, the globalisation of markets.This has been an historic year in the asset and wealth management industry, said Cornelia Kiley, an MD in Reynolds Associates Asset and Wealth Management Practice
JPMorgan shows its clout and class
The US bank is ranked as the UKs fourth-largest private client asset management firm, with £22.9 billion ($46 billion) in assets under management (AuM) as of the end of 2006, the latest edition of the Private Asset Manager-PAM yearbook shows.JPMorgan is disclosing its assets total to PAM, which tracks the domestic UK wealth sector, for the first time The £22.9 billion total compares with its £19.2 billion of AuM at the end of 2005 and £16.6 billion at the end of 2004.Although the US bank hasnt elaborated on the mix of clients holding these assets, experts say the total, as with a number of other banks, includes a proportion of non-domiciled residents wealth