The Belgian financial services group RHJ International has received approval from the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator, to be the controller of Kleinwort Benson, as it prepares to take ownership of the UK-based private bank from Commerzbank later this year.

Meanwhile, as the firm is moving its offshore banking entity, Kleinwort Benson (Channel Islands), from Jersey to Guernsey as part of the sale, it has also received confirmation from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission that it has approved the change of control.

The change is due to the Jersey Financial Services Commission’s rule that only the top 500 banks in terms of national and systemic importance are permitted onto the island; as Kleinwort Benson will not be part of this group after its sale by Commerzbank it is moving its banking licence to Guernsey. This will affect around 30 of the firm’s employees in Jersey.

Kleinwort Benson employs around 180 people in Jersey and as well as banking offers fund, trust and wealth management services there; it will continue to operate these businesses from Jersey and aims to grow these operations, Sandra Platts, managing director of Kleinwort Benson, Guernsey, told WealthBriefing.

To maintain its banking business, Kleinwort Benson will be looking to recruit sufficient staff in Guernsey to set up banking operations there. However, the bank will not be adjusting its office arrangements on the Channel Islands as there is already room in Guernsey to accommodate the extra staff, said Platts.

In terms of clients’ experience, the transfer would be “seamless”, and while customers would no longer be able to speak to Jersey-based staff about issues strictly related to deposit taking, there would still be relationship managers in Jersey, and because many clients are discretionary they would not notice the changeover, said Platt.

The formal change of control is expected to be completed on 1 July 2010.

The sale of Kleinwort Benson is one of a number of divestments by Commerzbank, which had to sell off non-core businesses as a condition of the state aid it received from the German government during the financial crisis. Accordingly, it has sold a number of businesses including Commerzbank (Switzerland) to Vontobel; a 74 per cent shareholding in Austria’s Privatinvest Bank to Zürcher Kantonalbank, the cantonal bank of Zurich, and Dresdner Bank Monaco to Lebanon’s Bank Audi sal - Audi Saradar Group.