Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (“BBH”) announced today the appointment of Rafael Febres-Cordero as Head of the Firm’s International Wealth Management business. This hire is a key component of BBH’s effort to grow its international business. Mr. Febres-Cordero joins BBH as a Managing Director with more than twenty years of experience in the financial industry across various markets. He will be responsible for the strategy and development of the International Wealth Management business catering to clients outside the United States. Mr. Febres-Cordero will be reporting directly to Charlie Izard, Partner responsible for Wealth Management and will be based in BBH’s flagship office in New York.

“Rafael is joining Wealth Management at a critical time, as we are well positioned to expand our international footprint focused on key regions around the world,” said Charlie Izard. “We are excited to have a professional of his caliber and believe his experience and leadership will help us continue to provide excellent client service to meet the unique needs of our non-U.S. wealth management clients.”

Prior to joining Brown Brothers Harriman, Mr. Febres-Cordero held a variety of leadership positions over fourteen years at Fidelity Investments, including Managing Director at Devonshire Investors, a private equity division of Fidelity, as well as Managing Director, Southern Europe & Latin America within Fidelity Investments International. Prior to Fidelity, he held various leadership positions in the areas of corporate finance and international corporate banking in Venezuela.

“I am delighted to join Brown Brothers Harriman’s International Wealth Management team,” said Rafael Febres-Cordero. “I believe the client focus and top-tier investment capabilities of the Wealth Management platform poise the business for growth internationally, and I look forward to working with individuals, business owners, family offices, and family foundations.”

BBH has been a privately-held financial services provider for nearly 200 years and has over 80 years of experience providing customized, discretionary investment advisory services to select clients across five continents. BBH’s non-U.S. clients share the Firm’s commitment to thoughtful investing and appreciate its culture of stability, continuity, and confidentiality. The Firm combines world-class, proprietary investment management with expertise in asset allocation and risk management to help its non-U.S. clients achieve their long-term financial goals.

The KBC group (‘KBC‘) has reached an agreement with Precision Capital for the sale of its dedicated private banking subsidiary KBL European Private Bankers (‘KBL epb‘) for a total consideration of EUR 1.050 billion, EUR 50 million of which depend on the results of KBL epb (‘conditional earn out’).

• Precision Capital is a Luxembourg entity, a company representing the business interests of a Qatari investor.
• KBL epb is one of Europe’s largest onshore private banking groups with affiliated local banks in numerous locations across nine European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• As at 30 June 2011, KBL epb had assets under management of EUR 47 billion, assets under custody of EUR 38.2 billion (and, through a 51.13% stake in EFA, assets under administration of EUR 87.5 billion).
• The transaction comprises the sale of KBC’s entire interest in KBL epb and includes all the private banking subsidiaries as well as the custody and life insurance businesses of KBL epb.
• The KBL epb brand, management team and operations will be maintained in their entirety and KBL epb will continue to be headquartered in Luxembourg.
• The closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2012.
• The transaction will release a total of approximately EUR 0.7 billion in capital for KBC, resulting in a 0.6 % increase in KBC’s tier-1 ratio. In addition, over the last 18 months, some EUR 115 million in capital have already been released as a result of a reduction in risk-weighted assets. The transaction will have a negative impact of approximately EUR 0.4 billion on KBC’s third-quarter P&L.
• KBC will continue to offer private banking services in Belgium and Central and Eastern Europe through its KBC-branded private banking businesses.

Jan Vanhevel, KBC Group CEO: ’The least we can say is that the market circumstances of the last few months have been particularly challenging. All the more reason why we are pleased to be able to announce today’s deal. This agreement marks a crucial step in implementing our refocus strategy, while at the same time providing continuity, stability and certainty to the customers and staff of KBL epb. The agreement will allow KBC to release a significant amount of capital, to reduce our risk profile and to further strengthen our focus on the core bancassurance expertise and markets of Belgium and Central and Eastern Europe. It is also reassuring to see that a Qatari investor recognises and values the strengths and potential of a European private banking group. Precision Capital believes it can grow KBL epb organically onshore and through strategic opportunities and also wishes to further capitalise on links with the Middle East and Asia.

On a personal note, it is with regret that I say goodbye to our KBL epb colleagues, with whom we have worked together successfully for many years. I especially wish to express my appreciation for the hard work and commitment they have shown, giving their customers the same high-quality service in these challenging circumstances and during the period of uncertainty of the last few months. I am convinced that Precision Capital will provide KBL epb with ample growth opportunities, secure the future of KBL epb’s staff and continue to offer excellent customer service.’

Jacques Peters, KBL epb CEO: ’We are pleased with the agreement which has been signed and which allows us to end this period of uncertainty. We can now look to the future with more confidence. Precision Capital will be for us a leading partner who is committed to supporting our customer-driven business model and strategy with a long-term perspective. With Precision Capital, we will be able to work closely together with the aim of tapping into new markets, in particular in the Middle East and Asia. We are convinced that our private banking clients, our staff and the Luxembourg financial centre as a whole will benefit from the highly committed support of our new owner.’

RBC Wealth Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE), this week launched a major global advertising campaign to support the global growth of its business.

The multi-year campaign is the first undertaken by RBC Wealth Management on a global basis, and features a series of print and online advertisements targeting high net worth individuals and their intermediary advisers, including lawyers and accountants.

“Raising awareness of our brand globally is a crucial part of our objective to both increase our leading market share in Canada and accelerate our growth internationally,” George Lewis, group head, RBC Wealth Management, commented. “This campaign is being launched at a time of tremendous opportunity for our business. RBC Wealth Management is investing in our brand in an environment where clients are looking for the strength, stability, global reach and integrity that our business embodies.”

The campaign, which launched this week, focuses on RBC Wealth Management’s position as one of the world’s top 10 wealth managers (Scorpio Partnership’s Global Private Banking KPI Benchmark 2011), highlighting its Canadian heritage, the breadth of its global solutions and its commitment to integrity. In an initial phase of the campaign focused on European audiences, Royal Bank of Canada’s proven history of strength and stability during times of market turmoil is highlighted. The campaign is unified under the positioning statement: “There’s Wealth in Our Approach.”
“Given the current environment, we chose to initially focus our campaign in Europe, where we believe that the stability that Royal Bank of Canada represents in the face of uncertainty will hold great appeal for clients,” added Lewis. “This campaign highlights our promise to clients that our approach to wealth management always places their needs first.”

The brand campaign will also see a new focus on sponsorship activity, focusing on RBC’s existing priorities in golf, visual arts, and promoting sustainable water use.

BNY Mellon, a global leader in investment management and investment services, today announced the appointment of Dean Fletcher as regional head of BNY Mellon Corporate Trust, Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”). Fletcher continues to report to James Maitland, head of Client & Business Development for EMEA and Asia Pacific (“APAC”).

Fletcher had been serving as co-head of EMEA for Corporate Trust with Joe Duffy. Duffy remains chief executive officer of The Bank of New York Mellon (Ireland) Limited and will continue to focus on the growth of BNY Mellon’s Irish businesses in his capacity as Country Executive for Ireland.

“In Dean, we have a strong business leader whose strategic insight has helped us anticipate market opportunities and deliver the capabilities of the whole company to our clients,” said Maitland. “He has been instrumental in overseeing our focus on delivering high quality service and tailored solutions while navigating through challenging market conditions across the region.”

Fletcher joined BNY Mellon in 2008 as head of Structured Products, Corporate Trust, EMEA. He has significant experience in managing a portfolio of market-leading business lines that have provided a full range of trustee, agency and administration services across the debt capital markets. Prior to joining BNY Mellon Fletcher spent five years with JPMorgan Chase Worldwide Securities Services as Business Head for Structured Finance Services and then Global Head of Risk, based in New York. This was followed by three years at Barclays Capital Services Ltd as Global Head of Operational Risk.

BNY Mellon Corporate Trust services $11.9 trillion in outstanding debt from 61 locations in 20 countries. Its clients include governments and their agencies, multinational corporations, financial institutions and other entities that access the global debt capital markets. The corporate trust business utilizes its global footprint and expertise to deliver a full range of issuer and related investor services and to develop customized and market-driven solutions. Its range of core services includes debt trustee, paying agency, escrow and other fiduciary offerings.

Corporate trust providers are appointed by corporations, municipal governments and other entities issuing debt to perform a variety of duties, including servicing and maintaining the debt issue, processing principal and interest payments for investors, representing investors in defaults, and providing value-added services for complex debt structures.

RBC Wealth Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE), today appointed Andrew Turczyniak as Head of Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Mr Turczyniak will be responsible for building RBC Wealth Management’s business in Asian markets. He will report to Barend Janssens, Head of Emerging Markets, RBC Wealth Management.

Barend Janssens commented: “Andrew brings with him a wealth of experience as a leader and has established deep relationships in the region, making him the perfect person to develop our business in Asia further. In particular his previous success in strengthening the collaborative efforts between RBC Capital Markets and RBC Wealth Management will allow us to accelerate our growth strategy.”

Mr Turczyniak has over 18 years of international banking and capital markets experience. He joined RBC in 1995 and has worked for RBC Capital Markets and Wealth Management in London, Sydney and Hong Kong, where most recently he held the position of Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong, for RBC Capital Markets. He is also currently the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

The appointment is the latest move in RBC Wealth Management’s development of its Emerging Markets business and its focus on high growth markets including in Asia. It follows the acquisition of the wealth management business of Fortis Wealth Management Hong Kong Limited in November 2010.

One of the world’s 10 largest wealth managers, RBC Wealth Management employs over 230 people in its offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Brunei and Beijing and serves over 1,000 high net worth clients in Asia.

Barclays Wealth, the global wealth management division of Barclays PLC, has appointed Ms. Anne Luke as Managing Director, Head of Client Solutions, Asia, on 10 August 2011, in a further extension of its continuing focus on the ultra high net worth client segment across Asia.

In this role, Ms. Luke will work closely with various units across the Barclays Group to drive the origination, structuring and delivery of bespoke private investment banking solutions to ultra high net worth clients. Typically, such transactions include large and complex deals which provide access to investments, manage financial risks or to provide structured financing across asset classes. Based in Singapore, Ms. Luke will report to Srinivas Siripurapu, Head of South Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as to Pakorn Boonya-kurkul, Head of North Asia.

In a career spanning more than 20 years, Ms. Luke has gained significant experience in private banking, investment banking, as well as in private legal practice. She spent a large part of her career with UBS, where she was responsible for wealth management solutions for the ultra high net worth client segment, and prior to that, she served the wealth management, investment banking and asset management divisions in the Legal and Compliance functions. She was also previously a partner in various law firms, covering banking and finance, as well as corporate advisory.

Mr. Didier von Daeniken, Chief Executive of Barclays Wealth Asia Pacific, said, “Anne has the skill sets and expertise in further enhancing our ability to leverage our expertise across the Barclays Group, and to deliver bespoke solutions and significant benefits to our client base across Asia. With her deep experience in banking and law, I am confident Anne will be able to further extend Barclays Wealth’s ability to provide customised complex solutions to our ultra high net worth client segment, and continue to drive our efforts in positioning Barclays Wealth as the wealth manager of choice for ultra high net worth individuals.”

In the past 18 months, Barclays Wealth in Asia has built a range of capabilities to cater to the complex needs of ultra high net worth clients. Recognising the sophisticated and diverse requirements of today’s ultra high net worth individuals, Barclays Wealth has introduced bespoke solutions in credit, derivatives, foreign exchange and trust structuring, to unlock the value from often complex portfolios, and help clients to monetise the full value of their assets.

In addition to providing the entire suite of private wealth management solutions, Barclays Wealth also caters to the sophisticated business needs of entrepreneurs in Asia, through drawing on the capabilities of Barclays Group, offering clients an array of other services including capital-raising activities, access to sector specialists and advisors, as well as institutional trading platforms.