Cortes will work with internal teams and external advisors to provide wealth management services to Latin American and Iberian high and ultra high net worth clients resident in the UK or overseas. He will report to Martin Heale, head of Americas, private client wealth management.

Cortes has over 16 years of international wealth management, retail and commercial banking experience spanning Colombia, Panama, the US and the UK. In his former role at UBS, he worked for two years as a client advisor within the LatAm and Caribbean team. He spent the previous three years at Barclays Wealth (now Barclays Wealth and Investment Management), first as a business manager and then as a private banker for the Iberian team.

“As the Latin American market continues to grow and wealth is created, there is increasingly demand among high net worth individuals to partner with wealth managers that understand and can cater to their needs,” said Philip Harris, head of private client wealth management at RBC in the UK.

In other significant moves, last week RBC Wealth Management made its second major appointment in the UK this month, naming Daniel Ellis as head of investments for the British Isles. Ellis joined from HSBC Private Bank, where he most recently served as managing director and head of the private bank’s investment group for the UK and Channel Islands. Meanwhile, a week earlier Mike Moodie was appointed to the newly-created post of vice president and managing director, UHNW, RBC Wealth Management - British Isles and Caribbean.

RBC Wealth Management serves affluent, HNW and UHNW clients in Canada, the US, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The firm has more than C$604 billion ($582 billion) of assets under administration, over C$369 billion of assets under management and some 4,400 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers and trust officers.