Wealth management in central and eastern Europe is undergoing a period of rapid and fundamental reorientation after the invasion of Ukraine and the accompanying international financial isolation of Russia.
Banks that barely looked beyond the top-tier clients may be particularly hard hit as increasing numbers of those clients come under international sanctions.
Most regional wealth managers chased the Russian market, of course, but Raiffeisen Bank International’s regional footprint in wealth goes way beyond Russia, in large part thanks to a relatively early focus on this segment, even compared with players such as UniCredit.
These rivals have recently been forging a similar path to RBI, adding private banking and wealth management offerings to regional corporate banking franchises.
But RBI, led by chief executive is Johann Strobl, retains an edge in much of central Europe, as its performance in Euromoney’s 2022 Private banking and wealth management survey illustrates.
RBI’s