In a move which reflects its continued growth ambitions, Coutts today announces a new management structure for its UK business, under the leadership of Michael Morley, Chief Executive of Coutts & Co.

The UK market will now be led by six regional Managing Directors all of whom will report to Michael Morley. In addition to the internal realignment, the new structure includes the appointment of Paul Smith who joins from HSBC Private Bank and who will have responsibility for all Coutts regional offices in southern England and Wales.

Mr Smith brings over 30 years’ financial experience to the UK management team, including 23 years of continuous private banking experience in the UK. He was instrumental in building HSBC Private Bank in the UK from its original start-up to over 750 bankers managing over £20 billion in client balances.

Michael Morley, said: “Earlier this year we set out our global ambition for Coutts but this clearly involves building our business in the core UK market. The new management structure will improve client focus and efficiency and I am delighted to welcome someone of Paul’s calibre to my management team. Along with my other regional Managing Directors, he will bring a great blend of client knowledge and business experience to the company.”

The Six Managing Directors will sit on the Coutts UK Management Committee

James Fleming will be Managing Director for London with responsibility for the Entrepreneurs, Landowners and Inpats client groups. James is a seasoned wealth management executive and moves from Coutts International where he had recently been leading the growth strategy for the Middle East.

Harry Keogh will be Managing Director for London with responsibility for the Professionals, Executives and Sports & Entertainments clients groups. Harry joined Coutts in 2009 and before that headed the RBS / NatWest private banking division. Recently he has been the Chairman of the Managing Partners group at Coutts.

Paul Smith will become Managing Director, South and Wales. Paul joins Coutts from HSBC where he was head of private banking and also Chairman of the Private Banking Advisory Panel for the British Bankers’ Association. He brings 23 years experience to Coutts gained in the private client industry and has considerable experience in building the private bank at HSBC.

Dylan Williams will be Managing Director, North and Ireland. Dylan joined Coutts as a graduate in 1998 working initially in London and subsequently in Manchester and was recently Managing Partner for the North West and North East.

Graham Storrie continues to be Managing Director, Adam and Company, and has market leadership responsibility for Scotland.

Steve Camm continues to be Managing Director, Retail and International Personal Banking and has market leadership for the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Gibraltar.

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.’

Barclays Wealth has announced three new hires to support the expansion of its strategy across the Latin American ultra high net worth client base.

Narciso Munoz has been hired as an Investment Representative in the Americas, and Isaac Topel and Andres Cazenave have been appointed as Private Bankers in Switzerland. These new hires join a 70-strong global team of advisors and bankers serving the needs of Latin American clients.

Mr. Munoz, who is based in the Miami office, joins from HSBC’s International Private Bank, bringing over 17 years of wealth management experience serving ultra high net worth Latin American families and individuals. During the past seven years at HSBC, Mr. Munoz focused on the Argentine market. Prior to this, he spent ten years at BankBoston in Argentina where he worked with individual and institutional clients.

Mr. Topel and Mr. Cazenave join the firm’s Geneva office from JP Morgan where they served Swiss-based Latin American ultra high net worth clients. Previously, Mr. Topel held wealth management roles at BankBoston, PaineWebber and Merrill Lynch International Private Finance. Prior to JP Morgan, Mr. Cazenave worked at UBS Wealth Management and HSBC Private Bank serving wealthy Latin American clients.

As part of its increased focus on Latin American clients, Barclays Wealth earlier this year hired Daniel Esslinger as a Managing Director and Head of Latin American Relationship Management and Distribution in the Americas, and Thomas Roiz as a Managing Director and Market Head for Latin America in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mr. Esslinger is based in Miami, while Mr. Roiz is located in Geneva.

“Over the last decade, Latin America has seen extensive growth in the wealth market and for Barclays this is a priority area for expansion as we continue to build our integrated global wealth management business,” said Steve Houston, Head of Wealth Management, Americas, who oversees the regional offices and Investment Representative network. He continued: “I am pleased Daniel will help drive the firm’s Latin American business strategy. Barclays Wealth is well positioned to serve the needs of ultra high net worth families and individuals, who are increasingly seeking a full-service wealth management offering.”

Many of the Latin America-focused hires are based in the Americas where the firm has, over the last 18-months, been bolstering its Investment Representative network. The advisors based in the U.S. include: Louis Tinoco, Rene Joliot, Edgar Ramirez and Romel Rodriguez who joined from UBS Wealth Management; Ruben Lesmes and Tony Esses from HSBC Private Bank and Jorge Carreras and Carlos Molina from the Private Wealth Management division of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. In the Americas, the firm’s Latin American business is supported out of its 13 offices including Miami, New York and Houston.

Mitch Cox, Head of Barclays Wealth in the Americas and Head of Research and Investments globally, commented: “We are pleased to welcome these talented and experienced individuals to the firm to help build our Latin American business. Over the last year and a half, our strategy for building a robust wealth management offering for Latin American ultra high net worth clients has accelerated. The firm’s approach of providing clients with highly customized solutions and service as well as access to the expansive global resources of Barclays PLC is a compelling proposition for seasoned wealth advisors serving the ultra high net worth market.”

With 13 offices across the Americas, including the Barclays Wealth Trustees (U.S.), NA., Barclays Wealth provides comprehensive wealth management to high net worth individuals and families. The firm focuses on understanding its clients’ financial needs, personal aspirations and tolerance for risk in order to design and implement highly customized investment solutions.

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.