Private Banks

Ambitious growth plans for J.P. Morgan Private Bank in the Benelux mirror the broader trend of consolidation in private banking, highlighting industry-wide expansions and strategic transformations in the low countries.

While economic growth and growth expectations for the US are leveling off slightly, the European economy appears to be strengthening. A unique moment lies ahead: the European Central Bank (ECB) may pre-empt the Federal Reserve (Fed) with rate cuts.

ING Luxembourg has decided to eject thousands of mass retail clients in the grand duchy as part of a strategic transformation in which it plans to boost its focus on more profitable private banking services.

Dutch bank ABN Amro on Tuesday said it agreed to pay 672 million euro for German private bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe, also known as HAL, from debt-laden Chinese investment company Fosun International. HAL’s asset services activities in Luxembourg and Ireland are excluded from the transaction.

Degroof Petercam, Belgium’s largest private bank with a significant presence in Luxembourg, on Wednesday posted a double-digit decline in its full year net profit because of one-time costs related to sale of a majority stake to France’s Credit Agricole group and due to higher tax pressure.

Addressing its business performance, the firm said its private banking business improved due to higher interest rates, while its asset management activities faced a decline in revenues. 

Asset managers still work with a variety of custodian banks, but is this truly necessary? According to experts from the Netherlands, the perfect custodial institution doesn’t exist. Moreover, no one wants to be dependent on a single entity.

Paris-based Oddo BHF Asset Management has announced the launch its first European Long-Term Investment Fund. The fund is called the Oddo BHF Commit for Tomorrow Eltif and will be domiciled in Luxembourg, targeting clients keen to commit to long-term financing companies that provide energy storage and water treatment solutions.

The amended EU proposals for a retail investment strategy have spurred asset managers to reflect on the value the offer for the money that they take, it beame clear at a Luxembourg discussion at the ALFI conference.

Some 40 new Eltif funds, enabling European retail investors to put their money in private markets, are understood to be in the pipeline, due to enter the market in the coming months.

When investors buy a company’s share, conventionally, they hope for the stock value to climb and maybe pay dividends. But there’s another way to make money on your shares – lend them to other investors to use for their own purposes, for a fee. This hasn’t been previously possible for most investors in Luxembourg. With help of a fintech, one bank has committed to make it happen.