It must take quite a lot to tempt a yachting enthusiast back into the world of private banking at a time when the sector is being tested by demanding clients, regulators and tough markets. In the case of Danny Dixon, however, the pull of his 30-year career was too strong to be out of the fray for long.

Dixon joined Butterfield Private Bank last September to head up its private banking arm in the UK, based in London. The private bank’s parent, the Butterfield group, is headquartered in Bermuda and received a cash injection of around $500 million last year after the firm was hit by losses related to mortgage-linked securities. The group has subsidiary offices in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Switzerland and the UK.

As a veteran of financial markets, Dixon takes such changes in his stride. He had previously worked at Coutts for four years before taking a sabbatical in 2008. He also has spells at HSBC and Hogg Robinson under his belt. He is a qualified Yachtmaster sailor, having sailed since his boyhood. After leaving Coutts, Dixon traded currencies and raised money for a product to measure glucose levels in diabetics in addition to shooting, golfing and delivering yachts. He’s worked with disadvantaged youths through what was the Ocean Youth Club and latterly, with Coutts’s sponsorship, the visually impaired through Blind Sailing week. He is the antithesis of a desiccated calculating machine but as he explains, Dixon takes the problems associated with banking in recent years very seriously indeed.

So with such thoughts in mind, Dixon got back in the private banking saddle. This publication recently caught up with him near his offices in London’s Square Mile district to find out about his background and plans for Butterfield.

What was it about the bank that tempted you back into the business?

“Firstly I missed the challenges of business life, - I realized I was too young to retire. Secondly, I believed that following the financial crisis the need for traditional private banking services, offering quality advice, focused on the client, was needed more than ever. Raymond Sykes, the managing director of Butterfield Private Bank, and I were put in touch after the financial crisis and we continued discussing market opportunities over the next 18 months. Following the capital injection into Butterfield in early 2010, Raymond kindly offered me the opportunity to help him grow the business along the lines of a client service-driven bank.” 

How do you see Butterfield Private Bank within the current market in terms of its distinguishing features, unique selling points, strengths, room for improvement?

“We have a number of good opportunities to grow the bank in the current environment. We are small enough to be flexible in the way in which we can tailor each of our services to suit our wealthy clients, and at the same time we are sufficiently strong from a liquidity and capital ratio perspective.”

“One of our key areas of focus is lending and we have been able to help a number of wealthy individuals secure large mortgages between £1 million and £8 million since the start of the year. Although borrowing from a private bank is seldom cheaper than a high street bank, wealthy clients believe the level of service is worth paying for. For example, one of our clients requested a substantial and complex loan on 23 December and we were able to provide an offer letter so that he could complete on 4th January, despite the Christmas holidays. It is this flexibility that we offer that clients benefit from.”

“It is pleasing to see the investment management business grow during challenging economic conditions and this is a key area for future growth that we are looking to strengthen.”

“People are one of our key strengths. The ability and professionalism of our private bankers – the staff in everyday contact with our clients on every matter of their financial lives – is how we will continue to demonstrate that this is a bank set to expand; though not so fast as to lose that crucial personal touch.”

“In terms of improvements, we are continually developing as we live in an evolving market place and being a bespoke private bank means that this is constantly on the agenda.”

How would you best describe this bank?

“I see Butterfield in a similar way to a members club; it is small and boutique which means that all of our clients are well known to us through the strong personal relationships that we have with them. We retain a traditional approach to dealing with our clients, for example we don’t have call centres and instead each client has direct access to their private banker. This approach is coupled with modern and effective systems allowing us to tailor our services to each client.”

What sort of plans do you have for the private bank in terms of growth, assets, lending, staff, offices, market reach?

We have ambitious plans to grow the bank; however we wish to grow at a rate where we can retain the personal service that we currently deliver to clients. As a result of growing our client base, our lending and our assets under management, we will need to simultaneously grow our team of private bankers and staff at an appropriate rate.”

What do you see as the main challenges for your kind of business at the moment?

"As we look to grow it is essential that we maintain our high level of personal service which provides the challenge of ensuring that the ratio of private banker to client remains low. Recruiting good staff is always challenging. That said, we know how many we need and over what timescale and we will, as we have been doing, take the time to make sure we hire the right people. Our clients have long been used to the highest standards of personal service and long-standing relationships and we need to continue this in the future.”

How do you think the private banking industry in the UK is doing overall? It is still a fragmented and sometimes not widely understood sector - how can this improve?

"Although the wealth management industry may have been through a difficult period which in many cases has highlighted a high level of client dissatisfaction and a low level of trust, clients coming to Butterfield tell us that they do so as they are looking for the kind of transparency and service that has frequently been neglected. It is these traditional values that we work hard to uphold.”

Where do most of your clients come from geographically and in terms of their background?

 "As a small City of London-based private bank inevitably our clients tend to be typically in or around London or SE of England. We do also have a healthy spread of international clients that we have gained through the evolution of Butterfield in London which started in 2001 with the purchase of Matheson Bank. This helped to develop and strengthen links with Hong Kong and the Far East. In 2004 Butterfield acquired Leopold Joseph and with it a mature client base of entrepreneurial clients, often with strong links to the Lloyds insurance market.”

“Going forward our clients will predominantly be UK-domiciled with their business or personal interests, but by their very nature wealthy clients are internationally mobile. We serve a broad spread of client types ranging from City professionals to entrepreneurs and wealthy individuals and their families.”

What do you like most about this area of business/like least?

“What I like the most about this area of business is that it provides the opportunity for philanthropy where wealthy individuals can be encouraged to give back in order to help those who most need it.”

“In terms of what I like least, on a personal front we live in a business that operates 24/7 and this does come at a heavy price regarding time one is able to spend with loved ones.”