Close Brothers Taps Singer for Fourteen Wealth Managers

Contributing Editor

24 April 2006

Close Brothers, the UK investment bank and wealth management group, has hired a team of 14 wealth managers from Singer & Friedlander, according to a Financial Times report. Names of the 14 bankers have yet to be released, but the hires represent a major move by Close Brothers’ wealth management business and a blow to Singer & Friedlander. Singer & Friedlander was bought by a unit of the Icelandic’s largest bank, Kaupthing Bank, last August. Kaupthing Bank has been immersed in the current economic and financial problems in Iceland and its share price has plummeted in recent months. Close Brothers has been actively building up its wealth management businesses during the last 18 months. The bank also recent bought a majority stake in Fortune, the London-based manager of funds of hedge funds.