Global Private Banking Awards 2017: Winners’ Profiles – National Winners (Southern Europe)

Best Private Bank in Latin America;
Best Private Bank in Spain
Santander Private Banking

Santander Private Banking (SPB), part of the Santander Group, has a presence in Europe, Latin America and the US, and provides private banking and wealth management services across a network of 100 dedicated branches.

According to Victor Matarranz, head of the wealth management division, SPB is responding to the challenges faced by the private banking sector at a global level, driven mainly by the changing habits of clients who now have greater access to information and demand different approaches to advisory services. “We have to create a new way of understanding private banking, to be at the service of our customers, becoming much more digital but relying on the knowledge and experience of our bankers, whom our customers value the most,” he explains.

The bank has implemented a number of initiatives to increase digitisation in their communications with clients, with the launch of new apps, digital signature facilities and the digitisation of some administrative tasks, among others. This goes in line with the general direction of Banco Santander, which has recently launched a new strategy called Digifilosofía, aimed at changing customer habits and promoting the use of digital channels.

“At the same time, we are starting to enter the digital advice space and its application to private banking needs and clients. We are working on an automised advisory engine that will provide our customers with monthly investment proposals, replicating the banker’s advice and taking the client’s total portfolio and preferences into account, covering the complete product catalogue,” he explains.

SBP has also dedicated time and resources to expand the range of investment solutions available to their private banking clients, including the launch of an alternative investments department. Using their well-established open architecture model, clients will be able to access the best private equity funds and hedge funds. The bank has also developed a new procedure to easily identify the best exchange traded funds.

Mr Matarranz highlights two main differences between the bank’s businesses in Spain and Latin America. One is the international profile of some of its Latin American clients, the other the different regulatory environments. “In Spain, and Europe in general, we are working towards the new MiFID II directive, which is helping us to accelerate some business model changes, which we see as key for the future of private banking.” PG

Best Private Bank in Portugal
BPI

The difficult economic environment in Europe over the last few years has provided BPI, now owned by Spain’s Caixabank, with an opportunity to differentiate itself from competitors. 

The winner of this year’s Best Private Bank in Portugal award has directed its attention to the development of a clear value proposition, by reducing portfolio and product complexity, offering diversification in terms of booking centres, and investing in technology to comply with growing technical and regulatory challenges. 

One such challenge is the arrival of MiFID II in January 2018. According to António Luna Vaz, head of BPI Private Banking, the business is in good shape to embrace the new regulatory framework. The bank already provides advice following the transparency and clarity requirements imposed by MiFID II, and both the bank’s IT systems and team members are ready for the new rules.

“What I think is going to be a challenge for the Portuguese industry is that we don’t have many clients who are willing to pay for sophisticated advisory services,” he says. “They pay for discretionary but, in terms of mindset, they don’t pay for advisory.” 

Mr Luna Vaz highlights the need for other players in the market to work together to try and change this perception, so the concept of paying for sophisticated advice becomes the norm.  

Creating strong and efficient support teams remains a key factor for achieving front-office excellence and high levels of service. BPI has adapted its business model to allow for relationship managers to spend more than half their time with clients.

BPI has been investing heavily in IT and will continue to do so in the future. During the course of 2016, it developed a tool which fully integrates wealth management activities, covering administration, customer relationship management and portfolio management. The bank also developed an IT platform called ‘GoBanking’, which allows relationship managers to be available anytime and anywhere, through a mobile workstation. 

“We are launching a website for advisory, where clients will have access to all our information, in terms of updates on financial markets, economic views, news, and our recommendations for asset allocation,” he adds. PG

Best Private Bank in Greece
Eurobank

The gradual digitisation of key front-office, client services, the broadening of its product and service offering, as well as the introduction of “high-end” solutions through its Luxembourg subsidiary, have enabled Eurobank to better meet client needs, and achieve higher customer satisfaction rates over the past year.  

Such initiatives have also enhanced the bank’s financial robustness, and improved its return on assets performance, which now stands at 0.85 per cent for the entire business, spread evenly across assets classes and instrument types. This ensures “a proper asset allocation in client portfolios, with specific emphasis placed on annuity-type income, which creates streams of revenues that last for multiple cycles,” explains Alexandros Tsourinakis, head of Private Banking Greece at Eurobank.

Since the Greek debt crisis erupted in 2010, the bank has “systematically” provided clients with “a web of information tools” aimed at keeping them abreast of developments. While appetite for risk has gradually returned, clients are still wary about the ability of the local economy to achieve a sustainable growth pattern. 

“Where we see a growth opportunity in private banking is in Greek clients’ funds that reside in competing institutions outside of Greece,” states Mr Tsourinakis. For this reason, the bank has reproduced its local offering at its subsidiary ERB Private Bank Luxembourg. Here it can accommodate new client assets that originate from other European or overseas destinations, while giving clients the option to manage them through Greece or the Grand Duchy. 

Eurobank is the only institution among local peers with such a strategic advantage, explains Mr Tsourinakis, and thus is an “enviable position for growth”. The bank, which also has a subsidiary in Cyprus, last year started offering private banking services in London through a branch of the Luxembourg bank.

During 2016, Eurobank also expanded its offering of lifestyle services, which include exclusive access to airport lounges, tickets to “highly prized events”, closed circle events on selective topics, and access to Greek personalities in various fields. 

“These lifestyle services help us strengthen our ties with the top tier of our most loyal and profitable client segments, while at the same time offering truly unique non-financial rewards, which are usually hard to put together on an individual basis,” states Mr Tsourinakis. ET

Best Private Bank in Italy
Banca Generali

Majority owned by Assicurazioni Generali, one of the biggest insurers in the world, Banca Generali has won the Italian award for the second year in a row, in addition to picking up the trophy in 2012. It manages more than €52bn ($61.5bn) in client assets, of which the majority is sourced from wealthy individuals, owning at least €500,000 in financial assets. This client segment is the key target for the bank, which also serves a more retail client base. 

Over the past four years, assets sourced from HNW individuals almost doubled, and today represent 63 per cent of total client assets at the bank. “We expect this trend to continue, so we are aiming at further developing our added value services and bespoke offering to wealthy clients,” states Gian Maria Mossa, CEO and general manager at the Italian bank.

The bank is reaping the benefits of its new business model, providing “holistic advice” to the wealthy, including corporate finance, real estate and generational transfer. It also continues to expand its army of financial advisers, totalling 1,900 today, recruiting private bankers from struggling Italian and international competitors in the country, while innovating on the product side. 

Last year, Banca Generali ranked first in the Italian private banking market in terms of net new money, which totalled €5.7bn, representing a growth rate of 22 per cent on 2015. The positive trend is set to continue this year, supported by the strong popularity of the bank’s broadly diversified managed solutions, or ‘wrappers’,
which include both mutual funds, spanning across several fund managers and asset classes, as well as insurance
products. 

Clients’ trust in the traditional banking system has been eroded, while the tax burden on real estate and low returns from governments bonds have left investors with few alternatives for protecting their wealth, says Mr Motta. 

Digitisation, which simplifies and makes the advisory process more efficient, is a key pillar for the bank. Last year, it launched a new digital collaboration service, allowing clients to place orders for transactions remotely, through their financial advisers. Also, taking inspiration from the iTunes business model, the
bank introduced a new solution, ‘store’, which gives clients access to various apps and services for market and portfolio analysis. 

It recently announced an agreement with Saxo Bank to establish an “exclusive partnership” to offer online trading and digital services. “Digital trading has become an increasingly appreciated service by clients,” says Mr Motta. ET

Best Private Bank in Andorra
Crèdit Andorrà

The tiny Pyrrenean state of Andorra has had a turbulent time in some respects recently.

The country has agreed to end banking secrecy, approving the automatic sharing of information on accounts held by non-residents.

Crèdit Andorrà has navigated these issues well, achieving an overall rate of satisfaction among private banking clients of 8.75 out of 10.

“Our key pillars are good governance and responsibility, focusing our management on continuously improving the quality of our services and, through our activity, contributing to the dynamism of Andorra’s economy,” says a spokesman at the bank. “Andorra is a competitive country that is developing and growing constantly. It has modernised and consolidated its tax system in order to adapt to the European context, and has sound public finances.” 

Driven partly by tax and regulatory changes, Crèdit Andorrà has also started an innovation plan that will change its business model. This is partly to fit with all the relevant regulations, including the International Financial Reporting Standards and Basel III. However, it also hopes to bring added value through the creation of digital services, and to “transform the traditional advisory model” to incorporate the new legal and other requirements. DT