Private Banks

Quintet sees little cause for celebration when the world rings in the new year, the Luxembourg private bank said in its 2023 outlook. The year ahead will be one of two halves: once central banks stop raising interest rates, a new cycle of uneven, global growth will begin. High-dividend and low-volatility equities may provide an opportunity to reduce portfolio risk, the firm’s investment officers said.

Private market investments have become overweight in institutional portfolios following this year’s substantial declines in public markets. Half of investors are waiting “as long as necessary” for this dislocation to subside. The other half is concerned, a new survey by Bfinance shows. The report is of particular interest to Luxembourg, where interest in private assets and alternative investments has increased significantly in recent years.

Driven by new technologies, consumer expectations and risks, banks are increasingly forced to think and act differently, The boldness with which they embrace change in the time ahead will determine which scenario unfolds between now and 2035. “Massive changes are on the horizon.”

Private banks in Luxembourg, especially the smaller ones, are struggling as their margins are squeezed while weak financial markets have not made business any easier this year, it became clear at a press presentation on Friday afternoon, held at the offices of Luxembourg’s bankers’ association ABBL, which presented the results of a new survey. “The important thing is critical mass.”

Luxembourg financial regulator the CSSF announced late last Friday a “reprimand” on a Swiss private bank named Banque  J. Safra Sarasin (Luxembourg) S.A. for failing to comply with Luxembourg law on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (the AML/CFT law).

Swiss private bank Banque j. Safra Sarasin, reprimanded by Luxembourg financial regulator CSSF in a public statement last Friday, has stated that the regulator had alleged no “actual money laundering activities”.

Luxembourg-based Quintet Private Bank on Sunday said it remains committed to its InsingerGilissen unit in the Netherlands after news emerged at the weekend of another major departure of one of its investment teams, the second such exit in the space of two weeks.

A Rotterdam-based investment team of four people representing InsingerGilissen, part of Luxembourg-based private bank Quintet, has transferred to Auréus, an independent Dutch asset manager that has been gaining scale through acquisitions and alliances in recent years. 

Former UBS director James Purcell has left Luxembourg-based private bank Quintet and joined Credit Suisse as head of sustainability. Purcell will report directly to ​​Credit Suisse’s chief sustainability officer, Emma Crystal.

After more than a decade at UBS, Purcell in 2020 joined Quintet as group head of sustainable, thematic and impact investments. At UBS he held similar positions between 2009 and 2020. His appointment at Credit Suisse took effect this month.

Unregulated alternative investments continued to be dynamic and successful in Luxembourg last year thanks to the modernisation in recent years of the Grand Duchy’s regulatory regime for private markets, consultancy firm PWC Luxembourg noted when releasing the latest version of its Observatory for Management Companies.