Private bankers - WHAT IT TAKES TO BE ONE N private banking Qj 10 WHAT'S News Issue 8 August 1996 By definition, private bankers are loathe to discuss either their clients or their affairs. Confidentiality means they never speak even generally about the customers they serve. What they can and do talk about easily is what being a private banker involves.We asked some of the senior relationship managers what it takes... 'My clients have my home telephone number, they know when and where I'm on vacation - and they certainly call me then. You have to build up a kind of relationship with clients that is at least almost friendship. You handle very personal affairs for that cliënt and the bottom line is that he comes first - then the bank. If you have no clients, you have no bank...' Unlike many of his colleagues, Renato Vanotti who focuses on clients in the Middle East, came to private banking via a rather circuitous route. 'I actually trained as an accountant,' he says. 'Then 1 became operations manager with the subsidiary of a large Saudi bank here in Switzerland. My job there involved implementing the private banking administration system. I got talking to colleagues and someone suggested I may be good with clients. That is how I started.' According to Vanotti, private banking is anything but glamorous. 'You have to be prepared to be on call 24 hours a day - and not just for banking matters. I have clients who call me at home asking if I will arrange anything from hotel reservations to private schools for their children. As their private banker, you do it for them. You also have to have a good general knowledge of current affairs, even sport. If you're meeting with a cliënt, you usually find you spend 10 minutes on the portfolio and the rest of the time on general conversation.' Hans-Dieter Gruber 'Anyone who wants to become a private banker must be prepared to put in 365 days a year,' says Hans-Dieter Gruber. His target market is the German-speaking countries and he ensures he is available for his clients around the clock. Daniël Nordmann, whose cliënt base is drawn primarily from the international Jewish community, emphasizes that even though private banking is the main service he offers to clients, cross-selling opportunities shouldn't be underestimated. 'A lot of our clients are involved in business. Sometimes a cliënt will have a transaction he wants to do, or introducés a contact to us. Here in Zurich, we have our own credit committee and we examine the risks and rewards. If we think it is worthwhile, we go into it more deeply. You should, of course, be conservative and look at every propsal very carefully, but we shouldn't decline a cross-selling opportunity sight unseen...' Renato Vanotti PRIVATE BANKERS Hoewel het vak van de private banker vol glamor lijkt is de werkelijkheid anders. De private bankers staan ook in hun privé tijd klaar voor hun klanten, desnoods 365 dagen per jaar, 24 uur per dag. De speciale klanten beschikken dan ook over hun privé telefoonnummer en er ontstaat vaak, door de zeer persoonlijke zaken die ze bespreken, na verloop van tijd een soort vriendschap. Het belangrijkste punt vooreen private banker is discretie. Over een individuele klant wordt niet gesproken. Daniël Nordmann

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 10