Qatar-aided European private bank Quintet is considering recruiting 100 relationship managers in a bid to expand its consumer market across three new regions.
This is in line with the strategy adopted by erstwhile UBS executives who have been roped in to run the organisation.
Speaking in an interview to Financial Times, Jakob Stott, Chief Executive of wealth management, said that he intends to bolster the frontline staff numbered to 300 or by a third or more in 2020.
In order to fulfil this objective, he is scouting for suitable locations to launch the bank’s operations in Latin America, the Middle East, eastern and southern regions of Africa and Asia.
With the advent of new tech-based adversaries increasing with each passing day and severe competition faced in private banking, the expansion plans have become all the more significant.
Quintet has around €70 billion of managed assets and is a consortium of seven boutique asset management firms that also features the likes of Brown Shipley in the UK and Merck Finck in Germany.
The consortium, previously known as KBL European Private Bankers, was rechristened as Quintet.
Quintet is funded in cash by Qatar’s Al-Thani royal household, which purchased a 99.9 per cent stake in 2012 for €1.05 billion and has invested further capital since then, including for accessions.
The bank is miniscule when compared to the industry’s Swiss global pioneers UBS and Credit Suisse, both of which oversee $2.5tn and $1.5tn respectively.
Although conceding that minor private banks have the threat of being stifled, Stott remains optimistic that Quintet can survive if a customer-centric attitude is adopted.