Lloyds TSB International Private Banking has high ambitions for the future.

Lloyds TSB International Private Banking has high ambitions for the future. "We are a £120 million ($242.7 million) profit business today. Based on our organic growth plans I want us to be a £250 million profit business in 2011!" Jakob Pfaudler, managing director International Banking, told his colleagues worldwide at Lloyds TSB International Private Banking. This was part of a recent update on business developments including the announcement of organisational changes and senior appointments. Foremost amongst the changes designed to take international banking to the next level of growth is the merger of International Private Banking and Offshore Wealth Management into one International Private Banking Business. Mr Pfaudler said: "Our goal is to create a unified international private banking offer which takes the best of both businesses and combines them to deliver a better, leaner, smarter and more compelling offer than we could ever achieve as two separate entities". This new business is to be lead by Carey Adams based in Geneva, Switzerland - the home of private banking. Mr Adams explained to WealthBriefing that this represents the last in a series of major changes made over the last three years in order to transform the private banking business, return it to profit and reposition Lloyds TSB in the private banking sector. Things are obviously going according to plan as Mr Adams said "that despite the turmoil in the market environment, our 2007 performance looks impressive. We have managed to accelerate income growth while at the same time remaining disciplined about costs. I am confident that we will exceed our double digit trading surplus growth aspiration in 2007. Much of this strong performance is due to our growth strategy and medium-term initiatives". One of Mr Adams’ biggest challenges has been to leverage on the brand image and to make it as synonymous with private banking as it is with UK retail banking. These efforts will now be aided with the establishment of an "International Embassy" within the new organisation and based in London. Mr Adams explained that "strategic research had highlighted the need to maximise the flow of leads from the UK by making International Banking, as a whole, easy to do business with. The introduction of the International Embassy is targeted at enhancing our profile with colleagues in the UK and providing a single point of contact for internal and external customers who want to do business with us. It will also enable us to better co-ordinate the many business development activities that currently take place in different parts of International Banking. Lastly, it will pro-actively drive business development (in franchise and new to franchise) across the UK. This is a new and exciting idea and one which I believe really makes a statement about the importance of International Banking to the Lloyds TSB Group". The embassy concept is being driven by Giles Cunningham aided by Lynn Waldron, responsible for new business development and Simon Wyatt in charge of marketing, branding, the management of referrals and ensuring that the bank truly delivers to its customers. Mr Adams believes that the International Embassy will soon grow to include some fifty staff. This will ensure that private banking services are offered to some 400 existing Lloyds TSB clients each year who leave the UK to take up high-powered jobs or decide to move abroad after selling their businesses. But Mr Adams was quick to point out that his team are not targeting UK nationals alone. Indeed, he mentioned that of the bank’s approximately 9,500 clients only 1,000 are from the United Kingdom. In addition to UK non-resident individuals, marketing is focused on non-resident Indian nationals and in Latin America, and the Middle East, particularly Dubai. Many benefit from the bank’s rapidly growing Offshore Trust Business. This will now be run by James Sturt-Scobie who has been charged with leading a broadened wealth structuring function that employs some 140 people. Based in Geneva, Mr Sturt-Scobie has played an important role in the restructuring process developing solutions designed to grow the business with a team of experts in investment, wealth structuring, credit and marketing. Mr Adams is proud of the bank’s conservative, thoughtful approach and its reputation for delivering quality. He said: "We project an assured comforting image that is important in today’s markets". Many of the client relationship managers have been with the bank for ten, fifteen or even twenty years and according to Mr Adams "live and breathe the bank’s core values". Lloyds International Private Banking presently operates out of eighteen offices around the world and employs 850 people, most of whom are deployed in front-office operations rather than in the back-office as in the past. Virtually all the members of the top team have been appointed in the last three years. Mr Adams is confident that the substantial changes made over the last two to three years have "created the platform for growth and investments that are enabling the Bank to realise its aspirations and full potential".