Under Cary Adams’ leadership, Lloyds TSB International Private Banking is recognised as an important growth opportunity within International Banking division and the group.

Under Cary Adams’ leadership, Lloyds TSB International Private Banking is recognised as an important growth opportunity within International Banking division and the group. The bank is currently in its “build and grow” phase, the second of three phases in its long term growth strategy, according to James Sturt-Scobie, the bank’s deputy managing director and director of Business Solutions. After an integration of the standalone international platform, which finished at the end of 2005, the Geneva-based bank’s “build and grow” phase is a prelude to stage three which will potentially involve acquisitions. The impetus of the current phase is on expanding the bank’s global footprint, improving the product suite, embedding core values and behaviours and setting up the bank’s new Business Solutions area. The recent appointment of Tim Bower, from within the group, as director of Client Franchise, is a key move to accelerate this phase of the strategy by providing strong leadership to the front office teams. Lloyds TSB IPB currently supplements its Geneva HQ with operations in the UK, Miami, Zurich, Monaco, Dubai, Gibraltar, Luxembourg and Montevideo. The bank’s stategy is to focus on four key strategic growth markets; namely the UK (leveraging the group’s brand presence and business franchise), non-resident Indians wherever they may be based around the world, Latin America and the Gulf region, according to Mr Sturt-Scobie. “We recently opened an office in Montevideo, and we’re opening up in Buenos Aries and Asuncion too. Several very promising clients have already come to us from these initiatives,” he told WealthBriefing. “In Montevideo we acquired a team of 9 client facing staff from Bank of New York and they are doing a great job growing our franchise in the region”. In the Gulf, the bank’s early commitment to the DIFC helped it secure a very low cost lease for its office, with ex-HSBC senior manager, Manoj Kapur leading a new team that currently stands at four client-facing staff. This investment “plays to the bank’s strength in Middle East and the NRI market in particular”, according to Mr Sturt-Scobie, and “there is such potential that I now regret not having taken twice the office space than we did”. “We’re targetting our offer to attract globally mobile business people and entrepreneurs with around SFr1.5 million to SFr 20 million of investable wealth. They are attracted to us by the fact that we can give a highly personalised offering, including the specialist Business Solutions teams and can leverage the facilities of a large group – especially business related credit.” Mr Sturt-Scobie is also proud of the many internal improvements made over the last two years at Lloyds TSB International Private Banking. Staff motivation has improved markedly, and turnover amongst the organisation’s 750 staff has declined in recent years. The bank has invested significantly in leadership throughout the business, including a new management approach involving a “Leadership Forum,” “Leadership Champions” and “Leadership Academy” nestling underneath the board level. These initiatives help future business leaders, whether already experienced, developing or “bright young things” to make the most of their management development within the bank. But perhaps one of the most innovative changes at the bank has been investment in the Business Solutions team, and this is close to Mr Sturt-Scobie’s heart. Research revealed that if a wealth manager only has an investment management relationship with a client, this tends to last on average 3-5 years as performance varies over time. If there is a credit relationship, this average extends to 7 years on average, but if the relationship involves wealth structuring, including trusts, foundations and corporate structuring, the client relationship may extend well beyond 20 years on average. So to extend the potential life of the client relationship, the Business Solutions specialist teams work closely with the relationship managers to develop solutions for key clients encompassing wealth structuring, succession planning and philanthropy and complex credit needs. “In many cases wealth structuring should start far earlier in the relationship than it typically has done historically, and we certainly want to win our global entrepreneurs as clients whilst they are in their wealth creation stage,” Mr Sturt-Scobie said. He said: “This is a world-wide service that we offer through our specialists meeting with clients and the relationship managers at their homes or in their businesses. It’s targeted at potential key clients which we set as clients with potential to invest over SFr3 million with us.” “Our investment will pay off with higher return for both the client and for the bank, and also with the dramatically increased length of client relationship that we expect to see. In addition to investing in Business Solutions, the bank has also strengthened its front office with over 100 new people over the last 2 years. With great relationship managers backed up by great specialist teams we expect Lloyds TSB IPB to put clear water between us and our competitors.”