Societe Generale Private Banking Hambros Launches New Advisory Division

Stephen Little

11 June 2014

, the UK arm of the French group’s private banking segment, is boosting its business with the launch of a new advisory division that includes nine new hires.

Based in the UK, Gibraltar and Channel Islands, the division is made up of 12 professionals and has been created to provide support to private bankers advising clients on their investment decisions, SGPB Hambros said in a statement today.

Each advisor will be assigned to a team of private bankers and the division is headed by Jeremie Vuillard, group head of advisory, who is based in London.

The new team will advise both on general and specialist areas, including strategic asset allocation equities, bonds, structured products, funds and other asset classes.

SGPB Hambros said the expansion was “integral” to the firm’s ongoing commercial strategic plan, which was launched last year. The plan sets out a road-map for commercial growth and aims to further improve the client experience as well as staff responsiveness to client demands.

“The new advisory division demonstrates our ongoing commitment to place clients at the centre of the business. The new hires, who between them speak French, Arabic and Russian, will ensure that we continue to meet the specific needs of our domestic and international clients,” said Eric Barnett, CEO of SGPB Hambros.

“Further to our expansion plan, by summer 2014 we will be adding two new recruits who will form the product marketing team and will be solely responsible for designing investment proposals. Meanwhile, the new advisory team will be further strengthened with additional UK domestic advisors in the coming weeks,” he added.

The investment in the private bank business in the UK would seem to stand in contrast to the position of the French banking group in Asia.

Following the fallout of the European sovereign debt crisis, like many of its rivals across the European banking industry, Societe Generale has been selling assets to improve profitability and bolster its balance sheet.

In March this year, Societe Generale sold its Asian private banking business in a deal worth $220 million to DBS, Asia's biggest bank by assets. This followed the sale of its Japanese private bank in 2013 to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

On the other hand, as previously reported by this publication, the Paris-listed firm has pushed ahead with plans to bolster private banking coverage in its home market of France as well as to extend operations in the UK.

In other news, last month, Societe Generale Private Banking has appointed Alan Mudie as its head of investment strategy, replacing Antoine Blouin, who will focus on his role as head of wealth management solutions, Switzerland.