Private banking survey 2009: Testing times shake up the old hierarchy

So, while UBS continues to reign as Euromoney’s top private bank, independent advisors are gaining favour among the wealthy. Helen Avery reports.

2009 Press release

Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey 2009 results
Can Rohner save UBS?
Testing times shake up the old hierarchy	Families seek havens from the storm
HSBC aims for the top	Barclays seeks out mega-rich
Methodology

PRIVATE BANKING IS a good business to be in. The world’s wealth may be slowly deteriorating as stock markets fall, hedge funds blow up and real estate prices crash, but rich people need advice – perhaps more so in bad times than good – and they will pay for good counsel. According to the Merrill Lynch/Capgemini world wealth report, high-net-worth wealth globally totalled $40.7 trillion by the end of 2007. But statistics from consultants Scorpio Partnership estimate assets managed by wealth managers to be just $17.4 trillion at that time.

So, regardless of the possibility that more up-to-date figures would show substantially less wealth, there is still room for private banks to double the assets of the world’s wealthy that they manage.