Few areas of banking hold as much promise as wealth management and private banking. Unfortunately, however, few areas are in such a state of flux either. The appeal for bankers is, evidently, that rich people have more money to invest and are more willing to pay for advice than the less well off. The size of the market is also colossal (see box, page 124). So with the financial crisis behind them and stock markets surging all over the world, private banks are rebounding. In 2014, Citi Private Bank, based in New York, increased its global assets under management by 5% in 2014, to $374bn. In the same year, the wealth management business of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) contributed 12% to the bank's total earnings. RBC, Canada's biggest bank, has the fifth largest private banking business in the world (see table, page 124).
展开▼
