Private banking has undergone, just like other sectors, a transformation process to adapt to the times and to the new needs of clients. Specialisation is one of the best strategies that institutions can foster to add value and stand out from the rest.
The comprehensive service sought by a private banking client calls for experts specialised in different fields. Having a single banker who managed the family estate is a thing of the past. The objective of always looking after the client’s interests remains the same, although the market has changed, and clients are now more demanding than ever. The comprehensive and personalised service that private banking must offer goes above and beyond mere bank management, adding other specialised services that touch on asset management, specific tax aspects, alternative investments, working towards generational relief, with innovative solutions and with a commitment to sustainability, to name just a few examples.
Private banking has joined the specialisation race to offer the added value of a multidisciplinary team that works in a coordinated manner to provide the customer with a 360-degree service. In this regard, bankers are now accompanied by a team of specialised professionals on hand to help him/her answer each of the client’s specific needs.
Therefore, on the one hand, private banking clients place increasing value on financial and tax planning, with a view to optimising taxation while ensuring their wealth is managed efficiently. This requires experts in the field to have in-depth and specific knowledge to advise clients on structuring their assets, optimising investments, protecting assets and planning the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next.
On the other hand, sustainability is an aspect that investors are starting to take into account more than ever, and institutions are opting to integrate it in a comprehensive manner into their road map throughout the global corporate strategy, fostering the incorporation of ESG (environmental, social and governance) aspects, not to mention coordinating initiatives in the field of sustainable finance. All this entails adapting to specific regulations and expertise in investments, products and services with sustainable criteria which is why we have experts in this field who are constantly evolving.
In addition to sustainability, in the field of investments, institutions have strengthened their teams by taking on staff with in-depth knowledge of alternative investments who can offer a wider range of products and services.
However, competitiveness in the private banking sector is key. One way to differentiate your added value could be to improve the customer experience, optimise operational processes and guarantee transactions. Professionals specialised in innovation are ahead of the curve, offering more agile and efficient solutions, in an increasingly digitalised market. They are experts with extensive technological and methodological knowledge that they apply to the financial sector and user experience alike.
And for everything to tie together, for informed and strategic decisions to be made, big data analysts are of utmost importance. This specialisation analyses the data that gives us valuable insights into client preferences and behaviours that will help us come up with personalised products and services. Therefore, analysing and processing data calls for a team prepared for technological advances, with a view to developing artificial intelligence, for cyber security to respond to increasingly sophisticated digital threats and for more data protection regulations to be approved.
These and many other profiles, which already existed but which have evolved to adapt to the paradigm shift, such as regulatory compliance, talent management and company culture, control and risk management, are added to the private banking management team with a view to reaching the level of expertise and comprehensive vision that clients demand and deserve.
An increasingly professional team for an increasingly prepared client. Neither rigorousness nor professionalism are watertight and static qualities, quite the opposite, in fact. Therefore, private banking is still in the race to specialise a process that is continuously evolving in which added value is key to being at the forefront and standing out from the rest in terms of the service offered.
Diari d’Andorra 26.06.2024