Bank of New York Mellon says its wealth management business saw its best net asset flows of 2008 in the third quarter and has seen record inflows from wealthy clients over the past year.

David Lamere, chief executive of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, speaking at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit, said: "Organic business flow has been great, in the teens of billions of dollars over the past year. And I'm unhappy to report that all of that has gone away in market value.

"Third quarter was our best quarter of this year. And I would expect that that will continue in the fourth quarter. We've actually added to our sales force by about 20 per cent over the last 12 to 15 months. That, for sure, has had an impact on our ability to attract assets."

His unit also gained from being set up and run as a "fiduciary and trust organisation, as opposed to a broker's model," he said.