Global Private Banking Awards 2019: Winners’ Profiles – National Winners (The Americas)
Best Private Bank in Bermuda
The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited
Butterfield has a long tradition in the banking sector in Bermuda, having established itself as a private bank in 1858. Today, the bank operates across 10 jurisdictions offering community banking, wealth management and trust services.
Its wealth management presence in offshore markets has been enhanced in recent years with a number of acquisitions, and the bank continues to seek opportunities for further expansion.
The firm describes its private banking model as being “high-touch”, built around regular interactions between relationship managers and clients, to foster a high degree of trust. This approach also facilitates growth in the provision of services to include trust and asset management, driving increases in share-of-wallet among their HNW and UHNW clients.
Butterfield provides domestic private banking services in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Guernsey, and has recently launched international wealth banking services for individuals and families with assets and banking and investment interests in multiple international locations.
In addition to a wide range of asset management services, trust and fiduciary services are a core offering for the company. Here, the bank’s in-house trust experts work closely to the clients’ external legal advisers to create bespoke solutions and specialised structures.
In 2018, Butterfield completed the acquisition of Deutsche Bank’s Global Trust Solutions business, enhancing the scale of its existing trust operations in Cayman, Guernsey and Switzerland, and resulting in the addition of a Singapore office to its global trust network.
Despite winding down its UK private banking business in 2016, the group still runs a UK mortgage business, Butterfield Mortgages Limited, serving international clients interested in buying property in London and whose wealth structures and income streams might suit the “tick box” criteria of high street banks in the country. PG
Best Private Bank in Brazil;
Best Private Bank for Customer Service in Latin America
Itaú Private Bank
Itaú Private Bank, a subsidiary of Itaú Unibanco, is one of Brazil’s largest private banks by total assets. During 2018, AuM grew by 18 per cent to reach $110.2bn, while the number of clients increased by 18.3 per cent to 8,667.
Much of this growth was due to the bank’s efforts to personalise offerings with products and services that fit clients’ individual needs and preferences, says Luiz Severiano Ribeiro, CEO of Itaú Private Bank. “Returns also play an important role, of course: our portfolios have generated consistent results in the past few years, so clients feel that they can rely on us.”
In a recent client satisfaction survey, the bank received a net promoter score of 71 per cent, in line with leading companies across all industries.
The bank has used big data techniques to better anticipate clients’ needs. Implementing the technology and getting the best out of it has been “quite a challenge”, says Mr Ribeiro.
“There is no room for error with a sensitive public as ours. But the large amount of data we do have is helping us learn more about our clients’ habits, education, hobbies and spending patterns, making it possible for us to offer even more personalised products, reports, events and means of communication.”
While Brazil undergoes political and economic upheaval, Itaú Private Bank’s model includes three practices to “protect clients from economic headwinds”. These are careful product curation, tailored and diversified product portfolios for each client and offering access to alternatives in the global marketplace.
“Our experienced investment team has a global approach; we generally recommend that our clients allocate 20 to 30 per cent of their portfolios to international assets,” says Mr Ribeiro. HM
Best Private Bank in Canada
RBC Wealth Management
RBC Wealth Management (RBC WM) describes itself as a “digitally-enabled relationship bank” and data is at the forefront of this. The private bank operates in an environment in which “client expectations are increasing, competition and markets are changing, and regulation is becoming more complex,” says Flora Do, vice-president, strategy and client insights.
RBC WM is one of the world’s largest wealth managers, with C$1.05tn ($780bn) of assets under administration and C$727bn under management as of Q2, 2019. It employs more than 5000 financial consultants, advisers, private bankers and trust officers.
The bank works with other RBC divisions to offer “holistic client experiences and solutions”. An example is Client 360, a recently-launched partnership between RBC WM and Personal & Commercial Banking in Canada. Using advanced data analytics, it provides a 360-degree view of clients who have relationships across multiple RBC businesses. Data science algorithms and big data technologies help the bank to better understand and anticipate customers’ needs.
“There is more data available and more demands being put on this data – what insights we can find, and how it can help clients and our businesses,” says Ms Do. “Using data in new ways while ensuring client privacy is mission-critical in our innovation approach. Collaborating with RBC business and functional partners created an opportunity to take a new approach to sharing data across RBC – with client consent – that ensured we met our commitment to a secure a more personalised experience for our clients.”
The bank plans to expand and further leverage its strategic data assets to enable employees to provide a customised advice experience and more effective and seamless relationship management, regardless of how they choose to interact with RBC. HM
Best Private Bank in Chile
LarrainVial
One of the largest investment banks in Chile, LarrainVial has more than $28bn in AuM. During 2018, it increased the number of new private clients by 7.1 per cent, bringing the total to 1765. A number of strategies were deployed to attract new clients, including improving the investment offering, financial education, engaging more closely with existing clients and targeting new client groups such as women and millennials.
Underpinning these efforts has been the bank’s open architecture approach. Gonzalo Córdova, head of wealth management at LarrainVial, says: “We believe that our open architecture structure is a key advantage for our clients. It allows us to access funds that are best in class. Our financial advisory area is able to review and monitor funds from all over the world and recommend the portfolio they believe is the best option to clients.”
An open architecture approach not only proves the bank’s independence but also means that its advisory services “are of greater value” and the bank can charge for them, he claims.
The bank segments clients along traditional lines of size and risk but has begun to incorporate goals and lifestyles. For example, young professionals with growing incomes and savings capacity are offered the Voluntary Pension Saving (APV) product, which has tax and regulatory benefits to incentivise investment. This enables the bank to offer these clients the same product range that is available to high net worth clients.
“We attempt to understand and incorporate clients’ goals when we build a portfolio – the needs of someone looking to save to buy a house are very different from paying for children’s education or retirement,” says Mr Córdova. “This goal-orientated approach is very popular with our younger investors.” HM
Best Private Bank in Colombia
BTG Pactual
BTG Pactual provides wealth management services across the main wealth hubs in Latin America, with offices in Brazil, Colombia and Chile.
In addition, the bank has been taking steps towards growing its presence in the US. In 2016, it opened an office in Miami with the aim of serving clients in this growing financial hub, their investors and the expanding Latin American community in south Florida.
In Colombia, BTG Pactual’s wealth management business is focused on the provision of investment and advisory services to HNW and UHNW clients. According to the bank, its one-stop shop approach is underpinned by a consistent track record, strong cross-selling between business units, a team of experienced professionals and a broad offering of products and services.
In 2018, the business attracted a record high volume of new assets, helping to consolidate its presence in the Colombian market. Cross-selling with M&A deals led by the bank’s investment banking unit served as an opportunity to capture net new money from clients.
In addition, the consolidation of the bank’s alternative investment strategy with a broad selection of investment solutions, means clients can now access a wide range of investment solutions to diversify their portfolios, with strong return potential, low volatility and controlled risk.
“We are constantly improving the advice process, understanding clients’ financial needs in an integrated manner,” says Juan Rafael Pérez, CEO at BTG Pactual in Colombia. Their recommendations, he says, are tailor-made and based on a deep analysis of each individual client.
“This allows us to design a specific investment strategy, the objective of which is to combine tax optimisation vehicles and investment products in local and offshore markets, oriented to maximise the portfolio results.” PG
Best Private Bank in Mexico
BBVA México Private Banking
In the spring of 2019, BBVA announced the unification of its brand worldwide, waving goodbye to all the group’s local names, including Mexico’s Bancomer.
Bancomer’s private banking division now operates under the BBVA México Private Banking name, but its strategy has remained unchanged, focused on consolidating its position as one of Mexico’s leading private banks.
Over recent years, the bank has redefined its approach to customer relations, moving away from just providing financial products, to offering clients a full range of services to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. The adoption of new strategies and technologies have made a crucial contribution towards achieving this objective.
In 2018, the bank developed its Wealth Management Customer Journey, with the aim of better understanding their clients’ needs, not just in terms of their assets and investment portfolios but also regarding significant life events which would require financial planning.
BBVA also introduced Digital Work Place – an integrated solution powered by Salesforce and with Lenovo Thinkpad equipment – that allows private bankers to visualise customers’ personal data and linked banking products, design personalised portfolios, and identify new business opportunities.
In addition, the bank’s mobile app was revamped recently. Built upon a ‘all-in-one’ strategy, the app now acts as a single platform to access digital sales, operation notifications and banker communications, to name a few.
One of the core financial solutions available to private banking clients is the Multiestrategia Libre Bancomer, a product that combines a life insurance structure with an investment portfolio strategy, and a specialised lending product, all under a tax-efficient structure.
The bank’s offering in terms of financial and non-financial solutions has continued expanding. In 2018, BBVA became the first private bank in Mexico to issue a green bond. PG
Best Private Bank in the US;
Best Private Bank for Succession Planning
Northern Trust
Technology remains core to Northern Trust’s growth strategy and ability to advise clients. In 2018, the US bank, which enjoyed 9 per cent revenue growth, made further enhancements to its goal-based wealth management framework, by rolling out a new set of features to include estate and wealth transfer planning.
“The framework enables us to visualise a consolidated balance sheet, dynamically align assets to goals in a purposeful way, and ensure clients have the right investment plan for all market environments, regardless of the level of their wealth,” says Steven L. Fradkin, president at Northern Trust Wealth Management. Coupled with the expertise of the bank’s wealth and investment advisers, technology allows for any aspect of a client’s plan to be changed in real-time to accommodate real life, he adds.
The Global Family & Private Investment Offices group (GFO) is Northern Trust’s fastest growing segment within wealth management. “We keep clients at the centre of everything we do, act as a consultative partner, and tailor holistic, customised solutions,” states Mr Fradkin.
The bank also regularly challenges conventional thinking regarding asset allocation and manager selection to provide investment solutions for clients that they would not typically receive at competitor firms, he claims. These innovative solutions have included real asset strategies, China-focused venture capital and private equity, fixed income enhancement strategies, municipal bond crossover approaches and cash enhancement strategies.
To meet the more complex reporting needs of family offices, Northern Trust introduced an advanced business analytics solution, Anchor Analytics, which enables clients to visualise data, offering intuitive report authoring tools and, more recently, holistic data modelling, allowing clients to easily incorporate outside data sources. Leveraging AI technology, the tool also offers clients the possibility to identify patterns and key drivers in their data.
With more than 130 years of experience working with business owners, Northern Trust provides advice throughout the lifecycle of a family-owned business. Advanced succession planning is essential to assure the greatest chance for success, even for established and profitable businesses, says Mr Fradkin. For entrepreneurial ventures, it often requires even greater advanced focus and attention to deliver successful results.
“Upon the untimely loss of an entrepreneurial leader, a business venture can quickly run short of resources and strategic vision,” he explains. “Advanced planning to assure ownership transition, management continuity and sound strategic governance can often make the difference between a failed business venture and one that continues on after the loss of the visionary founder.” ET
