Private banking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Private banking is done by major institutional banks known as private banks, which offer financial services to private individuals. These banks would normally have two distinct divisions - private banking, and corporate banking.
Historically private banking has been viewed as very exclusive, only catering for high net worth individuals with liquidity over $1 million, although it is now possible to open some private bank accounts with no more than $50,000. An institution's private banking division will provide various services such as wealth management, savings, inheritance and tax planning for their clients.
The word "private" also alludes to bank secrecy and minimizing taxes via careful allocation of assets. An offshore bank account may be used for this purpose.
Contents |
[edit] Private bank rankings
Euromoney's annual private banking awards provide a qualitative and quantitative review of private banking services. Factors such as assets under management, profitability, ratio of clients to relationship managers and services offered are all considered. Results cover a large spectrum of categories.
Best private bank for ultra high net worth ($30m+) 2006. This table displays results of one category of the Private banking awards. (Source: [1])
| Rank 06 | Company | Rank 05 |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | JPMorgan Private Bank | 1 |
| 2. | Goldman Sachs | 3 |
| 3. | UBS | 2 |
| 4. | Citigroup Private Bank | 4 |
| 5. | Credit Suisse Private Banking | 5 |
| 6. | HSBC Private Bank | 7 |
| 7. | Pictet & Cie | 6 |
| 8. | Merrill Lynch | n |
| 9. | Rothschild | 8 |
| 10. | ABN Amro Private Banking | 10 |
Ranking: 'n' denotes 'nominated'
[edit] Scale
According to Scorpio Partnership's Annual Private Banking Benchmark for 2006, the largest private banking division is at UBS AG, followed by Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, each of these institutions gathering more than $1 trillion in assets under management for private clients<ref>Scorpio Partnership Benchmark 2006, Press Release and summary [2]</ref>.
Private banking institutions showed an increase in profits and assets under management in 2006 following a period of slow growth by 3.8% in 2004<ref>City Business Series, March 2006, International Financial Services London [3]</ref>.
Switzerland is a major location for private banking. Swiss banks hold an estimated 35% of the world's private and institutional offshore funds, or 4.6 trillion Swiss francs<ref>Open a bank Account in Switzerland [4]</ref>.
[edit] References
<references />
