All articles by Tina Leung
Tina Leung
Nordea buys Sydbank’s Swiss unit
Nordea Banks Luxembourg-based subsidiary has bought part of Sydbank’s private banking client base in Switzerland. The agreement follows Sydbanks decision to scale down its Swiss-based activities. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
Rothschild sells private equity arm in MBO
French private bank Edmond de Rothschild has sold its majority interest in Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity Select (Select), its private equity arm, to Selects management. This move follows LCFRs decision to reduce its commitment to private equity sponsorship, largely as a result of changes in the regulatory and market environment.
Coutts reshuffles senior management
Coutts UK, a private banking business of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, has revealed a new management structure which involved the appointment of six regional managing directors. The newly created positions have been filled internally, with the exception of Paul Smith, who joins as the former head of HSBC Private Banking.
RBC sets up London-based Eastern European desk
London-based RBC Wealth Management has established an Eastern European desk as it looks to further its expansion in the region. Justyna Jackholt will lead the desk as director, where she will be responsible for identifying and building new relationships with Eastern European clients. This announcement comes as part of RBCs recently revealed plans to boost headcount within its UK private wealth management arm from 30 to 100 by 2015.
HSBC secures New York trophy office
HSBC Alternative Investments Limited (HAIL) and EDGE Fund Advisors (EDGE) have acquired the remaining 51% ownership interest of 1540 Broadway, Manhattan. The purchase was made for a syndicate of HSBC clients in an off-market transaction. Concurrent with the purchase, HAIL has also closed on the refinance of the property with MetLife, an insurance and financial services provider.
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Family businesses key pillars of Asian growth
Family businesses have been a crucial source of private wealth creation in Asia in the past decade, new Credit Suisse research confirms. An analysis of 3,568 publicly listed Asian family businesses found that they delivered 261% cumulative total return and a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% during 2000-2010, outperforming local benchmarks in seven out of 10 Asian markets. The study showed family businesses accounted for about 50% of all listed companies, 32% of total market capitalisation, as well as 57% and 32% of all listed companies employees in South Asia and North Asia respectively.
Lloyds boosts UK Wealth leadership team
Lloyds Banking Group has expanded its senior UK Wealth leadership team as part of an ongoing strategy to broaden its private banking client base. The appointments are the latest in a series of restructuring efforts by Lloyds to simplify its wealth arm as a result of a strategic review conducted in June.
IRS nets extra $500m in second tax amnesty
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collected $500m from its 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (OVDI) which ended on 9 September. This figure is expected to increase as it does not yet include penalties. The second OVDI saw 12,000 new applications with additional cases still unaccounted for. These results remain a significant decrease from the IRS first offshore programme in 2009 which collected $2.2bn from 15,000 voluntary disclosures and 3,000 late applications.
BofA to cut 30,000 jobs, wealth arm not hit
US banking giant Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) is to cut 30,000 jobs over the next few years in the next phase of its major restructuring efforts, Project New BAC. However, a BofA spokesperson confirmed redundancies can be expected for wealth management and operations management staff in Phase II which begins in October and concludes in March 2012.