HSBC Private Bank has appointed a new sales quality review team to assess the standard of sales advice given to clients, including the transaction and execution sides of the bank’s offering, as part of efforts to further improve its client service.

Heading the team, which reports to Paul Smith, head of client relationship management, is David Woodriffe, who is joining the bank at the start of next month. He was latterly head of risk and business assurance at Barclays Wealth, a role in which he worked closely with client advisors, investment committees, risk and compliance to implement several initiatives to improve the quality of advice given.

"He [Woodriffe] joins with a wealth of experience in business assurance and will coordinate our efforts to ensure we meet our regulatory obligations, at the same time as working closely with our relationship managers to continuously improve the delivery of our products and services to clients," Smith said in a statement.

The rest of the team comprises Atiyah Zafar and Simon Hall, who have been appointed from elsewhere within the HSBC group. Zafar has been transferred from the Manchester private banking office, where she covered Global South Asian Diaspora (GSAD) clients in the northern region; Hall was latterly a financial planning sales manager within HSBC Bank, a role in which his main responsibility was to ensure that sales processes met regulatory and internal guidelines.

HSBC Private Bank’s move to appoint such a team comes at a time when wealth managers are keen to be seen placing extra emphasis on the client experience. The events of financial crisis, such as widespread investment losses and a number of huge frauds coming to light, have arguably eroded clients’ trust in the industry and put extra pressure on firms to prove that they are really earning their fees.