Heads of BoNY Mellon Wealth Management and Citigroup’s high net worth client business both indicated they intend to acquire wealth management businesses in the US, at an industry conference in Boston. Bank of New York Mellon Corp Private Bank chief executive officer David Lamere seemed closer to an acquisition than his rivals at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit. Mr Lamere said he is talking to several possible prospects, according to Reuters. He pointed to regions including the mid-west, Texas, and states like Arizona as presenting growth opportunity over the next few years. “Building new businesses from scratch is much harder than acquiring good ones,” Mr Lamere told the summit. Citi's Mr Ditizio told the summit also he would not rule out making a takeover. Bank of New York completed the acquisition of Mellon Financial Corp in July. Reuters reported Mellon historically has focused on acquiring wealth managers who oversee around $1 billion of assets or less. Mr Lamere told the summit now, following the Mellon/BoNY merger, acquiring larger wealth managers typically responsible for multiple billions of dollars under management makes sense. Despite the consolidation in the private wealth industry that has occurred this year – including the Bank of America’s $3.3 billion purchase of the US Trust private banking arm - participants and the conference believed there is still room for small players. Al Piscopo, president and chief executive of Glenmede Trust Co, with $20 billion under management, commented the outlook for mergers in the industry may be exaggerated. "Consolidation in this industry really is a big myth," he said. "Big firms buy small firms that end up fragmenting into even smaller firms," he added. "I will bet money that there will soon be half a dozen new firms in New York soon because of the all the takeovers going on right now."