European Depositary Bank, a Luxembourg-based provider of banking, depositary and custody solutions that is part of the Apex Group, on Monday said it has been appointed by Arab Bank to support its European real-estate ambitions with digital banking services.
EDB said it has been selected to provide services for 32 bank accounts for 14 special purpose vehicles as part of Arab Bank’s 400 million euro pan-European real estate strategy.
The contract was awarded to EDB by Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd, a sister company of Amman, Jordan-based Arab Bank, one of the largest banks in the Middle East. From Switzerland, Arab Bank offers private banking services for high-net-worth individuals and entrepreneurs.
“Arab Bank continues to build one of the most attractive portfolios in the logistics sector in Europe,” said Jean-Daniel Zandona, regional head of business development at Apex Group, in a statement.
Targeting top quartile in Emea
“Their recent acquisition of Banque Gonet will fuel capital raising further, demonstrating Arab Bank’s ambitions to become a top quartile real estate actor in the Emea region. We are proud to be supporting this journey with our digital banking services, as we strive every day to build innovative solutions for the alternative investment community.”
Last November, Swiss private bank Gonet & Cie SA and Arab Bank Switzerland announced a strategic business partnership agreement, creating a new banking group that aspires to be a major actor in the Swiss wealth management industry, with assets under management in excess of 10 billion Swiss francs.
“In a context where most traditional banks in Luxembourg have cold feet to bank private assets funds and corporates, Apex Group proposed a unique digital platform allowing us to get our 32 bank accounts across 14 SPVs onboard in a fully digitised, streamlined manner, in less than three weeks,” Daniel Delechat, head of asset management at Arab Bank Switzerland. “We were also impressed by their multi-currency cash sweep module to optimise our cash management, automating time deposits across leading counterparties, effortlessly.”
As part of Apex Group, EDB is one of the largest providers of depositary services in Europe for regulated Ucits and alternative funds, with over 162 billion dollars in assets under depositary.. This latest news follows the appointment of David Claus as CEO of EDB, and recent client wins of GenTwo and Mikro Capital for paying agent services.