Strategy
UK Private Bank Scales Back Regional Network
Kleinwort Benson, the UK-based private bank, is to shutter its Manchester office as part of efforts to streamline its operations, Citywire reports.
Following the change, the firm’s Leeds office will function as the hub for its wealth management operations in the Lancashire area, the report said.
A spokesperson for the bank told the publication that the bank can adequately cover the region from the Leeds office, which is managed by Jonathan Marsden. More staff will be added to the Leeds office so that it can cope with the influx of clients formerly served from the Manchester branch. The firm is also understood to be looking to ramp up its headcount in its Edinburgh office as part of its restructuring efforts.
Private bankers Stephen Black and private banker Ian McElroy departed the Manchester office earlier this month, according to the publication. Details of their new roles have yet to emerge.
In addition to Leeds and Edinburgh, Kleinwort Benson has remaining regional offices in Cambridge and Newbury.
Kleinwort had not responded to enquiries from WealthBriefing on the matter at the time of publication.
While Kleinwort may have contracted its regional network with the Manchester closure, it is in an expansionary mood elsewhere. In March the firm agreed to buy Close Brothers Offshore Group for a cash consideration of £29.1 million ($46.7 million).
The acquisition includes the Offshore Group’s private banking, fund administration, trust and asset management businesses across Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, as well as its wholly-owned service centre in Cape Town, South Africa.
The deal, which remains subject to price adjustments due to the net asset position of the acquired business at the time of completion, will take Kleinwort Benson’s private wealth assets under management to around £7 billion. It also gives the bank a presence on the Isle of Man and in South Africa.
Close Brothers Offshore Group currently employs 350 people across the four jurisdictions, while Kleinwort Benson employs 358 in the Channel Islands and 271 in the UK.