Private banks must pay heed to regulatory and technological change, and changing client attitudes, or face extinction.

In response to the revelations that a senior executive suppressed a damaging report into Barclays Wealth, Alix Prentice, partner in the financial services regulatory team at international law firm Taylor Wessing, predicts that the bank may face action from a UK regulator increasingly focused on suitability and client risk appetite.

The country’s entrepreneurs are increasingly drawing on private bankers’ skills as they seek out new sources of income and ways to pass on wealth to younger family members.

As equity markets founder and Asia’s high-net-worth individuals become more sophisticated, the region’s private banking bid for bonds is driving the international debt markets. Could Asia’s rich professionals be the new Belgian dentists?

Brazil’s wealthy have traditionally based their investments on products tapping the country’s high interest rates. But with rates now much lower private bankers are seeking to persuade their clients to transform their strategies.

China’s wealthy are growing rapidly in number. But the private banking industry’s capacity to cater for them is still limited, not least because of the restricted range of products on offer and the need to educate clients. In this discussion private banking experts consider prospects for wealth management development in this dynamic economy.

Kathy Merchant is president and chief executive of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, one of some 700 community foundations in the US. Like most community foundations it offers a donor-advised fund product – pools in which local individuals and families invest as part of their federal tax-deductible charitable-giving allowance. The funds are invested in balanced portfolios, and the donors can ask the community foundation to make grants to non-profit organizations when they wish. Four years ago, Merchant started looking at social-impact investing as part of the foundation’s overall community investment strategy. "The idea was that you can make a grant, and then the money is gone, but we have a lot of creative and entrepreneurial people in Cincinnati, so we thought it would be attractive to look for opportunities where they could perhaps make a loan or invest in a local enterprise."

Speak to people involved in philanthropy about impact investing and lots of contradictory phrases are trotted out. "It’s not new, but at the same time it’s very new," is one. "It’s a great opportunity, but there are lots of challenges," is another. For Mario Marconi, managing director and head of family services at UBS, the concept is simpler. "The idea of impact investing is to promote social and environmental good while at the same time applying an investment logic," he says.

With public spending being cut, wealthy individuals are putting more of their philanthropic dollars to work through social-impact investing. Companies are being set up to provide advice and products, and the private banks need to get on board.

The Swiss bank stands apart from its peers. It helped its clients profit, both in the serene waters of 2019 and in the wake left by Covid-19 as it spread across the world in 2020

“I think this crisis has shown why being with a firm focused on wealth management as a primary business and having a global perspective matters to clients,” says Tom Naratil, co-chief executive of UBS global wealth management (GWM) and president of UBS Americas.

Our review period was a difficult one for private banking operations in the region, as it was worldwide: the fourth quarter wiped out huge chunks of revenues and assets for some international and local players, and it was a year that required sound individual advice for clients.

For the second year running Credit Suisse is Latin America’s best bank for wealth management, this year bolstered by the completion of a three-year turnaround across the whole bank.

Household net financial wealth in CEE has roughly doubled since 2006 and private banking and wealth management services are increasingly in demand across the region.

With a new strategy of regionalization, integration and innovation, Credit Suisse’s wealth management business has set itself apart from its peers and brought the ethos of Swiss personalized service to an international platform.