The private banking business in Spain remains an attractive niche for the financial sector. According to the consulting firm DBKAt the end of 2017, the assets under management of customers with financial assets of at least 300,000 euros amounted to 450,000 million euros. A group of almost 400,000 people, mostly residing in large urban centres in the communities with the highest levels of wealth per capita, known as the "golden triangle" (Basque Country, Navarre, Cantabria, Valencia, Catalonia, Madrid).
Strong investment in resources
500,000 is the minimum threshold that allows them to provide a specialised offer in terms of products, tools, equipment, relationship managers and even offices to their wealthiest clients. The search for an efficient and profitable model is the cause of this limitation.
Private banking clients contribute high margins both on and off the balance sheet to their financial operator's income statement. But they demand personalised and highly professional treatment, due to their high level of financial literacy and the imperative need to trust an interlocutor who in practice becomes the "director" of the strategy that their wealth must undertake to meet a host of specific objectives: time horizon, risk profile, preferred assets and markets, successions, shareholding structure of the family group, tax optimisation, profitability of their investments...
This requires relationship managers to demonstrate a high level of financial literacy and service quality, to keep abreast of regulatory changes, to use advanced technology to manage all areas required by their client, and to coordinate specialised teams that provide individualised solutions. This is the only way to build a stable, long-term relationship with each client.
In other words, attracting and retaining a private banking client requires a large investment in resources for any financial operator. This is because it is essential to have a value offer that is global, tailor-made, differential, and independent, with the focus exclusively on the client's interests.
Business models
In Spain, the private banking business continues to be dominated by the large commercial banking brands. According to DBK, they manage 771 Tbp3T of the total assets of this customer segment, compared to the 231 Tbp3T share held by the specialised institutions. Universal banking has a great advantage over the rest: it can share resources in serving various customer segments, thus reducing costs. What resources? Above all, those allocated to corporate activities (HR, financial management, on-balance sheet products, technology, etc.) and commercial activities (branch network, business growth objectives).
But this advantage can turn into a disadvantage. In practice, it is more difficult for universal banking to win the loyalty of a type of customer whose trust is based on personalised contact with an interlocutor, as they value less service aspects such as digitalisation, the achievement of profitability for their investments, and others.
The main attraction of universal banking for this customer is the solidity and solvency provided by the brand, which makes him trust an entity that, due to its size and balance sheet strength, is not in danger of decapitalisation.
Independent private banks, however, can, a priori, better meet the requirements of an exclusive and quality service, although this requires them to invest heavily in resources to be able to do so. All the more so in the current regulatory environment, which after the entry into force of Mifid IIThe cost of the project is lower than expected, reduces revenue generation expectations and increases costs.
The impact of Mifid II
The aim of implementing the European Mifid II directive is to strengthen investor and customer protection for financial products and services. This regulation covers many areas of activity: product governance, listing and definition of the services that can be provided - management, advice, information, marketing, execution -, customer reporting, high level of training for providers, cost transparency, investment monitoring and optimisation process ....
The impact on the private banking business is therefore enormous. So much so that the sector sees Mifid II as an opportunity to reorder business models, as it must adapt most of its activities (and with it, the expectation of costs and revenues) to this new way of working.
This is where the dilemma between counselling independentThe client pays a recurring fee and has access to the entire universe of marketable financial assets with the recommendations of his or her advisor, in the face of counselling dependent, where the advisor recommends assets to the investor, and collects commissions from the manufacturer for those that its client has purchased within a limited product universe, provided that requirements in terms of revenue and cost transparency and quality of service are met.
Technology is playing its role as a tool to speed up the implementation of Mifid II requirements, achieving the greatest possible cost savings. It is even allowing the emergence of private banking models based on automated management and/or advice, aimed at high net worth individuals, without the assistance of relationship managers, in order to reduce the level of expenses.
The role of specialised communication
However, any business model in private banking must be based on a personal relationship between the client and his interlocutor in order to achieve his objectives of efficiency/profitability and growth. These are challenges that can only be met if clients are loyal to 100%, and if all their financial and asset needs are met by their provider.
The role of specialised financial communicationis key to helping each operator optimise their regulatory adaptation and business growth strategies. Because it helps to position each brand with its strengths, whether its structure is a universal bank with specialised teams and areas, or whether it is an exclusive and independent private banking model, or other non-banking models. And because the secret of success in building customer loyalty is to provide a global and tailor-made service for each customer, which can be achieved if they perceive the differential brand strengths of their operator.
Private banking is a service that manages the client's integral relationship with their financial operator: the advisory and management needs for their wealth, tax optimisation needs, transaction needs, and financing needs. Communication therefore becomes a tool that conveys the differential value chosen by each private banking provider, and the keys to its success in its strategy for customer loyalty and business growth.
Javier Ferrer
Financial Communications Director Proa Comunicación