<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published October 9, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>One ad, but 500 apply for private bank job
RBS Coutts Asia chief surprised by volatility in private banking market
By SIOW LI SEN
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(SINGAPORE) With confidence returning to the financial markets, the private banking industry is recruiting with a vengeance. The high turnover though is not a good thing in terms of cost to the banks and service to clients.
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</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>Mr Pollard: The more private bankers you expose your clients to, the less you are able to provide confidentiality </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'I'm amazed at the volatility of this market,' said Nick Pollard, newly appointed chief executive of RBS Coutts Asia.
Within three days of arriving here last month, he's probably had every headhunter in town ring him, including some asking him to move back, said Mr Pollard. Prior to this, he was managing director of UK & international private banking at Coutts & Co in London.
And when RBS Coutts Asia advertised two Saturdays ago, some 500 applications poured in three days later. The bank ran a similar advertisement in Hong Kong and has received about 200 applications there.
'It wasn't necessarily that we saw it was going to give us all the quality bankers . . . that (ad) ran on a Saturday; by Tuesday, we had nearly 500 applications,' he said in an exclusive interview with The Business Times this week.
The bank intends to hire 200 private bankers over the next five years as his mandate is to double the Asian assets under management (AUM) as well as revenue in the same period.
Private banks are focusing a lot of their efforts in Asia as the region is expected to have the fastest growing economies in the world.
HSBC group private banking chief executive Chris Meares told a conference on Monday that the region remains a growth spot for the firm. Mr Meares expects the proportion of its Asian assets to rise from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of its total assets over the next five years.
RBS Coutts Asia saw its business grow more than 30 per cent annually from 2005 to 2007, but last year - like everybody else who was affected by the economic crisis - it had some contraction.
RBS Coutts Asia today has 17 billion Swiss francs (S$23.1 billion) assets under management, down from its pre-crisis peak of 19 billion francs. Its Asian AUM make up 25 per cent of the group's total.
In Asia, it currently has about 133 private bankers, with 50 in Singapore, 59 in Hong Kong and 24 in India. The bank moved its international headquarters to Singapore in 2006 from Switzerland. Singapore has slightly over 200 staff in all.
In hiring, the bank is looking at both experienced private bankers as well as junior ones whom it will train and hopefully retain.
As for the high turnover of private bankers here, Mr Pollard said it does the industry no good.
'Underpinning private banking is discretion and confidentiality. The more people you expose your clients to, the less you are able to match those aspirations,' he said.
In the UK, clients stick to a brand like Coutts; and private bankers, when they leave, rarely take large numbers of clients with them, said Mr Pollard.
'Client attrition in the UK Coutts portfolio is less than 10 per cent; here, on average, it's 30-40 per cent,' he said.
Clients continue to tread warily despite the rebound in the markets, although some are beginning to dip into funds of hedge funds, he said.
Clients are still moving into liquidity positions, such as short-term deposits and treasury-related type products, he said. 'At the moment it's a back-to-basics format,' he said.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>One ad, but 500 apply for private bank job
RBS Coutts Asia chief surprised by volatility in private banking market
By SIOW LI SEN
<TABLE class=storyLinks border=0 cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>(SINGAPORE) With confidence returning to the financial markets, the private banking industry is recruiting with a vengeance. The high turnover though is not a good thing in terms of cost to the banks and service to clients.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>Mr Pollard: The more private bankers you expose your clients to, the less you are able to provide confidentiality </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'I'm amazed at the volatility of this market,' said Nick Pollard, newly appointed chief executive of RBS Coutts Asia.Within three days of arriving here last month, he's probably had every headhunter in town ring him, including some asking him to move back, said Mr Pollard. Prior to this, he was managing director of UK & international private banking at Coutts & Co in London.
And when RBS Coutts Asia advertised two Saturdays ago, some 500 applications poured in three days later. The bank ran a similar advertisement in Hong Kong and has received about 200 applications there.
'It wasn't necessarily that we saw it was going to give us all the quality bankers . . . that (ad) ran on a Saturday; by Tuesday, we had nearly 500 applications,' he said in an exclusive interview with The Business Times this week.
The bank intends to hire 200 private bankers over the next five years as his mandate is to double the Asian assets under management (AUM) as well as revenue in the same period.
Private banks are focusing a lot of their efforts in Asia as the region is expected to have the fastest growing economies in the world.
HSBC group private banking chief executive Chris Meares told a conference on Monday that the region remains a growth spot for the firm. Mr Meares expects the proportion of its Asian assets to rise from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of its total assets over the next five years.
RBS Coutts Asia saw its business grow more than 30 per cent annually from 2005 to 2007, but last year - like everybody else who was affected by the economic crisis - it had some contraction.
RBS Coutts Asia today has 17 billion Swiss francs (S$23.1 billion) assets under management, down from its pre-crisis peak of 19 billion francs. Its Asian AUM make up 25 per cent of the group's total.
In Asia, it currently has about 133 private bankers, with 50 in Singapore, 59 in Hong Kong and 24 in India. The bank moved its international headquarters to Singapore in 2006 from Switzerland. Singapore has slightly over 200 staff in all.
In hiring, the bank is looking at both experienced private bankers as well as junior ones whom it will train and hopefully retain.
As for the high turnover of private bankers here, Mr Pollard said it does the industry no good.
'Underpinning private banking is discretion and confidentiality. The more people you expose your clients to, the less you are able to match those aspirations,' he said.
In the UK, clients stick to a brand like Coutts; and private bankers, when they leave, rarely take large numbers of clients with them, said Mr Pollard.
'Client attrition in the UK Coutts portfolio is less than 10 per cent; here, on average, it's 30-40 per cent,' he said.
Clients continue to tread warily despite the rebound in the markets, although some are beginning to dip into funds of hedge funds, he said.
Clients are still moving into liquidity positions, such as short-term deposits and treasury-related type products, he said. 'At the moment it's a back-to-basics format,' he said.
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