Strategy
Mediobanca Private Bank Positions For New Wealth

This news service spoke to the head of the Italian lender's private banking arm, asking about strategy, the approach to growth and some current challenges such as inflation and market volatility.
A new generation of Italian wealth creators and high net worth
clients will help to drive Mediobanca Private Banking’s business
forward as the firm gears up to bring in more staff and resources
in coming years, its head says.
The firm, which recently launched the Mediobanca Venture Capital
Fund, is targeting areas such as private market investing – a hot
area internationally – as part of its growth strategy. Its
business model involves close cooperation between the private and
investment banking arms of the group.
“I see an incredible moment for the private bank in Italy…we have
had strong growth in assets under management, with a key focus on
private markets,” Angelo Viganò, head of Mediobanca
Private Banking, told WealthBriefing in an
interview. “We are seeing a lot of liquidity events…from private
equity, and IPOs. It has been strong in the past three years.”
The business has developed by providing alternative investment solutions and is doing so via direct investment initiatives through the club deal formula, supporting unlisted Italian businesses and real estate operations, and indirectly through funds in private markets, he said.
“A unique project in Europe will be launched soon, which will
allow the bank's ultra-high net worth clients to co-invest
directly in dynamic international companies alongside prestigious
private equity funds. For this project, Mediobanca Private
Banking will be able to count on the support of a hard core of
entrepreneurial families, given the success achieved with the
first investments promoted through TEC (Philogen and Jakala),
which have reached the exit stage with excellent results,” Viganò
continued.
Mediobanca Private Banking has about €22 billion ($23.9 billion)
of AuM.
Italy
“This is a particular moment for Italy and the economy…there is a
new generation of HNW customers coming…and we are doing a lot to
attract the next generation with fintech investments and private
market solutions,” Viganò continued. “It is very important for
Mediobanca to lead these opportunities in Italy.”
While traditionally a large chunk of HNW and ultra-HNW Italians’
money was banked and managed over in Switzerland, various tax and
account amnesties, disclosure agreements and the advent of an
Italian version of a “non-dom” regime mean that onshore private
banking in Italy is – at least for now – looking relatively
robust. Market research group Statista said that total assets
under management of the private banking sector in Italy rose
“considerably” between 2015 and 2019. As of 2019, the assets
under management of private banks in Italy were expected to
increase even further in the future, peaking at €986 billion in
2022.
Italy’s private banking sector is varied. Members of ACEPI, or
Italian Private Banking Association, to give one example,
contains members including Mediobanca, Societe Generale,
Vontobel; IWBank; Intesa Sanpaolo; Intermonte; Unicredit; BNP
Paribas, Banca Akros, and Banca Cesare Ponti. (The
latter body promotes entities such as structured
products.)
Market research group ReportLinker said that Italy’s affluent
segment (covering HNW individuals and mass affluent people)
accounted for 15.1 per cent of the total population and held 86.0
per cent of the country’s total onshore liquid assets in
2020.
Mediobanca knows that in Italy, as in other developed countries,
entrepreneurs and those HNW individuals building businesses are
important revenue channels. Several banks are tracking this
market: Deutsche Bank, for example, is targeting Italian and
Spanish entrepreneurs, as told to this publication
last November.
In Mediobanca’s private banking business, private bank customers
must have at least €5 million of investable wealth.
The investment bank side of Mediobanca, for example, is important for handling clients’ liquidity events Viganò said.
Non-doms – the Italian version
The UK’s non-domiciled tax regime may be getting political heat
at the moment, but Italy has a version of its own, and this
develops useful business for firms such as Mediobanca’s private
bank.
Viganò said there’s been a rise of interest among people in
relocating to Italy and using its financial incentives. “Milan is
particularly attractive for them.”
Non-doms are exempt from disclosing assets held
outside Italy because ordinary reporting provisions do not
apply. Candidates don’t have to disclose their foreign
investments/assets to the Italian tax authorities; and must
complete a checklist aimed at providing evidence of their
non-Italian domiciled status, focused on an applicant's
link with Italy. Italian citizens resident in tax low/no-tax
jurisdictions may also become non-doms if they meet certain
conditions and tell the authorities.
The new rules, which took force about five years ago, were a
reminder to countries such as the UK – having voted for Brexit in
2016 – that European countries want to attract inward
investment. Such moves are unlikely to fade, even if governments
sometimes suspend schemes in order to curb political controversy.
“In the next months we will see an increase in numbers of people
choosing Italy as a country, such as private equity guys,” Viganò
said. He referred to Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi and the
importance of Italy remaining stable politically.
Trials and tribulations
Not unexpectedly, this publication wanted ask Viganò about
current events.
“Naturally there are a lot of concerns about the Ukraine crisis.
Inflation risk is a key point for clients and it is important to
offer protection for this type of risk. One of the solutions to
protect assets is to invest directly in real assets,” he said.
(The bank has no Russian clients.)
Staff in demand
“At the moment it is important to attract talent and we have
increased staffing in the last year and will do more…with about
10 to 15 bankers,” Viganò said. Currently, Mediobanca has 90
private bankers in total.
“The growth of private banking in Italy means it is important to
capture `capital in motion’ events. It is important to attract
the sort of private investment banker…such as if you offer IPO
solutions, then it is relatively easy to attract clients after
the operation. We want to grow in the next three years by about
20 to 30 per cent in terms of assets and revenues,” he
said.
Leading this development is a challenge that Viganò relishes.
Before starting at Mediobanca, he was responsible for the key
clients team in Banca Esperia, which he joined in 2009. From 2004
to 2009 Viganò worked at UBS Italia where he served in various
capacities becoming the head of the UHNW individuals team for the
Italian market. Previously, he was a senior banker at Banca
Popolare Commercio e Industria and Banca C Steinhauslin.
“Mediobanca Private Banking is the first Italian private
investment bank. It stands out for the consistent and distinctive
path taken since its creation in December 2017, which today
positions it as the only private and investment bank in Italy.
This is also thanks to a highly integrated model that enables it
to be the long-term partner of Italy's top 500 business groups,”
Viganò said.