The European Asset Management Industry Plays a Crucial and Growing Role in Financing the ‘Real Economy’

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Based on the staff costs, taxes paid and profits of the industry, it is estimated that the European asset management industry contributes an average of 0.35% per year to European GDP and has very significant potential to fill the gap left by banks in providing finance to European economy, according to Societal and Economic Impacts of the European Asset Management Industry, a report by Jens Hagendorff, Professor of Finance & Investment at the University of Edinburgh, sponsored by EY, and with contributions from EFAMA. 

The European asset management industry is large, with assets under management of over 115% of European GDP (or nearly €17 trillion). It directly employs around 95,000 individuals across Europe and is estimated to indirectly employ 530,000 full-time equivalents. The value added is particularly large in the UK, where it contributes 1% of GDP per annum, and in France, where it contributes 0.5% of GDP per annum. In absolute terms, the figures are also large – across Europe the report estimates that yearly value added of the industry is €50b.

Roy Stockell, Wealth & Asset Management Leader for EMEIA at EY, says: “What makes the size of the industry particularly noteworthy is the rate at which it is growing. Comparing OECD data for the UK in 1980 against comparable data for today shows that the industry has grown six-fold in little more than 30 years. This is largely because populations have become larger, older and wealthier and this trend shows no sign of slowing. Asset management is a European success story. Policymakers need to recognize the potential of the asset management industry to play a larger role in financing the ‘real economy’.”

Asset managers are already key to the financing of the economy

In 2012, the asset management industry held debt securities issued by euro area residents worth €4 trillion. This amounted to 23% of all debt securities outstanding at the time and corresponds to 32% of the value of euro area bank lending. The ratio increases to 43% if mortgage lending is excluded from bank lending figures.

The figures are particularly high in the UK where the debt securities managed by the industry correspond to 26% of all debt securities, but 82% of bank lending and 87% of bank lending excluding mortgages.

The report also considers equity financing. In 2012, European asset managers managed equity values at €1,374b, which corresponds to 31% of the market value of euro area listed firms and nearly 40% of the free float of European listed firms.

Jens Hagendorff, Professor of Finance & Investment at the University of Edinburgh and author of the report says: “Long-term savings and risk management are at the heart of what the industry provides, which makes it suitable to provide long-term finance to European corporations. As such, the industry provides a crucial link between investors and the needs of the real economy.

“It also should be noted that the European asset management industry does not attract a costly bailout guarantee and can therefore offer financing services in a more cost-efficient way than banks, generating a large saving for society.”

The industry acts as a steward of Europe’s corporate landscape

The report estimates that nearly €500b of the value of the European equity market is due to the role European asset managers play in improving the corporate governance of the firms they invest in.

Christian Dargnat, President of European Fund and Asset Management Association, commenting on the report, says: “We are very supportive of research initiatives such as the one carried out by this report, as they are crucial tools to communicate better on how our industry meets important needs of European societies.

“The evaluation of how we, asset managers, have a significant and positive impact on the European economy bears strong significance for the role we have to play in the financing of this economy.

“Policymakers, the media, peers and the public equally need to be made aware of the potential we can bring to this crucial goal —which ranks high in the agenda of both international and European top-level regulating bodies.”

You can access the full report here.

 

BNY Mellon Highlights Differences Between Deflation, Disinflation and Lowflation

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Despite sluggish economic growth in recent years, BNY Mellon’s 2015 Outlook is for a prolonged global and U.S. economic expansion, according to BNY Mellon Chief Economist Richard Hoey. Stronger future growth should reflect a fading of drags on growth rather than new sources of strength says Hoey in his Economic Update entitled, “Outlook 2015.”

“Following three years of global growth near 3% on the IMF measure, we expect a somewhat faster pace of global growth in 2015, given the lagged benefit of low interest rates and the effect of low energy prices,” Hoey says.  “Given the downward shift in trend growth in China, we expect the developing economies to expand at about the same pace in 2015 as in 2014.”

“With the fiscal drag fading, the cyclical pace of U.S. economic expansion is now shifting higher,” Hoey continues. “A somewhat similar pattern has emerged in the UK, although more fiscal tightening lies ahead.  It is notable that the labor markets of these two countries are among the most flexible in the developed world, which appears to have fostered a combination of strong job growth and postponed wage inflation.”

Hoey cites that due to the slow pace of global growth, there has been concern about deflation, disinflation and lowflation. (Deflation is a pattern of declining prices, disinflation is a downward shift in the pace of positive inflation and lowflation is positive inflation persisting at a pace only slightly above zero.)

“We make a distinction between ‘bad deflation‘ due to a collapse in demand, ‘capacity hangover deflation‘ due to past overexpansion of capacity and ‘good deflation‘ attributable to successful technological innovation,” Hoey says. “We believe that the oil and gas sector is an instance of ‘good deflation,’ as technological innovation has sharply reduced the cost of producing oil and gas in the U.S.  The U.S. energy service companies are global leaders of technological innovation in the energy sector.  We regard the recent weakness in energy prices as a symptom of successful technological innovation rather than as a signal of a weakening global economy.” 

Other report highlights include:

  • Japanese Expansion Sustainable but Sluggish– Stating that Japan was “caught in a stagnant equilibrium for two decades,” Hoey says that Japanese policy should stimulate a moderate cyclical expansion through low real interest rates. 
  • China Economy a Crucial Uncertainty for 2015 – Hoey states that the deceleration in Chinese economic growth is not cyclical but structural, due to the combination of a slowdown in the growth of its labor force and the need to correct past credit and property excesses.   Hoey thinks that China is beginning a transition from a double-digit trend growth rate in the past to a sustainable growth rate near 6% in the future.
  • Sustained European Expansion in 2015, 2016 and 2017 – While Hoey cites adverse demographics and relative energy prices, as well as a badly designed euro currency system contributing to a sluggish long-term outlook for Europe, Hoey is cyclically more positive about European prospects for the near term and expects moderate but sustained European expansion in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
  • U.S. Economy “Three-for-Three” Growth Acceleration – Hoey believes that the U.S. economy has just made an upward shift from a half-decade of expansion at a real GDP growth rate slightly above 2% to three years of 3% real GDP growth.  “This new “three-for-three” growth acceleration should be due largely to a fading of the persistent drag from the government sector over the last half-decade,” Hoey says.  Hoey also says that over the next three years, he expects U.S. real GDP growth to accelerate to about 3% and nominal GDP growth (real GDP growth plus inflation) to accelerate to about 5%.  He also expects this acceleration of real and nominal economic growth to contribute to a multiyear uptrend in U.S. interest rates. 

“We believe that U.S. monetary policy will be very supportive of economic expansion for the next several years,” Hoey says. “With inflation below the Fed’s target and some slack remaining in the labor market, both parts of the Fed’s dual mandate support stimulative monetary policy.” “Since we believe that the U.S. economy is not currently very inflation-prone, we would expect a monetary policy fully supportive of economic expansion in 2015 and 2016, with the need to shift to a truly restrictive policy postponed until 2017 or 2018, after the Presidential election of 2016,” Hoey concluded.

Only 5% of RIAs Feel “Advanced” at Marketing or Business Development

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La mayoría de los RIAs destinan un 2% de sus ingresos a marketing
Photo: Tomwsulcer . Only 5% of RIAs Feel "Advanced" at Marketing or Business Development

Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, a custodian for registered investment advisor (RIA) firms, has released findings from The 2014 Fidelity RIA Benchmarking Study,which revealed many firms recognize the need to improve when it comes to marketing and business development: only 5 percent feel their firms are advanced in these areas, and seven in 10 do not have a plan in place to guide them toward better business results, a number that has gone unchanged since 2011.

The study looks at what may be holding RIAs back from advancing their marketing and business development efforts and explores the best practices of “High-Performing Firms” to help RIAs learn from their peers.

According to the study, High-Performing Firms excel in the areas of growth, productivityand profitability. And while many factors can contribute to their success, these firms stand out in several important areas of marketing and business development: firm story, targeting clients, referrals and aligning talent—strategies that may be contributing to their ability to close business in two or fewer meetings and drive more incremental growth than other firms.

“Three-fourths of firms see improving their marketing and business development as a top strategic initiative, but they are struggling to make progress,” said David Canter, executive vice president and head of practice management and consulting, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services. “As firm leaders sit down to think through their 2015 strategic plans, they should consider looking to their peers for insights on what is working and ideas on where to focus to make the most impact.”

Among the key findings of the study, High-Performing Firms are focused on telling a consistent firm story, while half of RIA firms are still struggling to establish one. Only 56 percent of all firms agree that they have a clearly defined and differentiated firm story, and only 43 percent agree their stories are tailored to the specific needs of target clients. High-Performing Firms are 1.7X times more likely to tell a consistent firm story, with all client and prospect- facing associates describing their firm and its key differentiators in the same way. As a result, High-Performing Firms are also more likely to agree that the majority of their clients know the fundamentals of their firm story, which can help clients become advocates for the firm.

While firms are making progress when it comes to targeting the right clients, High- Performing Firms are almost twice as likely to effectively communicate their target client profiles to help generate the right referrals. Firms with a target client profile reported that 90 percent of new clients added in 2013 fit this description, compared to only 75 percent of clients on board prior to 2013. High-Performing Firms are almost twice as likely to agree that they effectively describe their target client profiles to both clients and centers of influence (COI). This may help clients and COI identify the most appropriate referrals, which may lead to a higher percentage of clients fitting target client profiles over time.

Few firms have an “advanced” referral process; High-Performing Firms are four times as likely to leverage COI referrals to the fullest. Referrals from existing clients and centers of influence are important channels of growth for RIAs, accounting for 75 percent of all new clients. However, less than one-third of firms rate their referral processes as advanced, or even fairly strong. Only 14 percent agreed that they have analyzed their client base to focus on the clients most likely to make referrals. High- Performing Firms are 4X more likely to say their COI referral processes are advanced. This includes activities such as always thanking sources for referrals and working to understand their centers of influences’ target client profiles so they can send reciprocal referrals. In addition, they are more likely to review centers of influence data, such as referral status, at least monthly and keep data up to date.

High-Performing Firms have the talent and resources in place, while one-third of RIA firms are pursuing business development officers. High-Performing Firms are approximately twice as likely to be pursuing strategic initiatives to develop talent- management plans or change firm compensation plans—signs that they may be managing talent more proactively. They are also less likely to see lack of internal sales and marketing capabilities as an issue and, possibly as a result, are less likely to be hiring business development officers (81 percent not pursuing vs. 66 percent of other firms).

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Gramercy Property Trust Closes a €350mn Venture for Single-Tenant Net Leased Assets in Europe

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Gramercy Property Trust has announced, along with several of its investment partners, the closing of a €350 million venture targeting single-tenant net leased assets and sale-leaseback opportunities across Europe, and the simultaneous acquisition of ThreadGreen Europe Limited, an existing property investment and asset management platform.

Gramercy Europe is a joint venture among the Company and investment entities managed by EJF Capital LLC, Fir Tree Partners and Senator Investment Group LP, along with certain other investors. Gramercy Europe will invest predominantly in single-tenant industrial, office and specialty retail assets in Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordic region, the United Kingdom and other targeted European countries. The total equity capital available to Gramercy Europe is €350 million, comprised of an initial commitment of €250 million of equity from Gramercy and the Founding Investors as well as an additional capital accordion of €100 million. Gramercy has a total commitment of €50 million to the venture. Simultaneously with the closing of the venture, Lindsay Sparacino of EJF, Jarret Cohen of Fir Tree and Michael Simanovsky of Senator will join the board of directors of Gramercy Europe, together with certain representatives appointed by Gramercy, including Gordon F. DuGan.

Simultaneous with the closing of Gramercy Europe, the Company is purchasing all of the assets of ThreadGreen Europe Limited who will provide the day-to-day management of the investment vehicle. With the ThreadGreen purchase, Gramercy has a fully-integrated presence in Europe, including investment personnel, asset management capability as well as all support functions in those areas. Principals of the Company and ThreadGreen worked together for a number of years at W. P. Carey & Co., where Alistair Calvert, Managing Director of ThreadGreen, along with Michael Heal, Director of ThreadGreen, ran the London office of W. P. Carey from December 2004 to June 2006. ThreadGreen currently manages approximately €210 million in single-tenant industrial and office assets located in Germany, Finland and Switzerland. Gramercy’s management along with the ThreadGreen principals have overseen investments in excess of $3 billion of single-tenant properties in Europe over a greater than 10-year period.

Gordon F. DuGan, Chief Executive Officer of Gramercy Property Trust, stated, “We are very excited about the opportunity to buy single-tenant assets with long, inflation-indexed leases throughout Europe at high current yields. We believe this new investment vehicle gives Gramercy shareholders access to European net leased assets in scale and in partnership with deep-pocketed and sophisticated partners. Gramercy will have a fully-integrated team on the ground that we have worked with in the past and a strategy that I have many years of experience with. We hope to replicate the success we have had with Gramercy Property Trust with our effort on Gramercy Europe.”

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as the Company’s financial advisor in connection with the transaction.

Germany Leads European Mutual Fund Inflows

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The European funds industry enjoyed net inflows of only €0.4bn into long-term mutual funds for October 2014, according to Lipper Thomson Reuters.

Single fund market flows for long-term funds showed a mixed but positive picture for October; 22 of the 33 markets covered in Lipper’s report showed net inflows. The single market with the highest net inflows for October was Germany (+€2.4bn), followed by Italy (+ €1.9bn) and Belgium (+€0.8bn). Meanwhile, the international fund hubs Luxembourg and Ireland (-€5.8bn), France (-€1.5bn), and Denmark (-€0.5bn) stood on the other side.

Mixed-asset products—with estimated net inflows of €7.7bn—were the best selling asset class overall for October.

BlackRock, with net sales of €4bn, was the best selling group of long-term funds for October, ahead of Vanguard (+€2.2bn) and Pioneer (+€1.6bn).

Provisional figures for Luxembourg- and Ireland-domiciled funds suggest equity funds, with estimated net inflows of around €17.6bn, will be the best selling products for November.

Russia Moves To Stabilize Its Currency

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¿Default en Rusia?
Photo: Dennis Jarvis. Russia Moves To Stabilize Its Currency

A sharp drop in the oil price has caused concerns over the potential damage to the Russian economy and has led the Russian central bank to raise official interest rates sharply to stabilize its currency. This Market Update sets out what is happening in the Russian markets, with comments from Fidelity Worldwide Investments.

Following international sanctions in protest at Russia’s expansionist policies in the Ukraine and most recently a sharp drop in the oil price, investors have become increasingly concerned about the potential damage this will have to the Russian economy as a major producer and exporter of oil. “We estimate that a 10% drop in oil prices can shave up to 1.3 percentage points off Russian GDP growth”, said the team of experts from Fidelity WI in an market analysis.

The Russian rouble has borne the brunt of these concerns (chart 2), depreciating dramatically against the US Dollar. Russian asset prices have also been falling across the board, with the stock market down over 8% in December, Russian 10 year government bond yields rising 5 percentage points to over 15% and 5 year Russian sovereign CDS rising from 318bp to over 620bp. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) raised overnight interest rates by 1% less than a week ago but a further 10% slide in the currency yesterday prompted it to hike rates by another 6.5% to 17%.

“The CBR’s aim is to slow the depreciation of its currency rather than to achieve a reversal of direction per se.  It is very concerned by the disorderly and dysfunctional way in which the currency has been trading. Rather than spend its foreign exchange reserves, which proved a costly and ineffective strategy in 2008, the CBR has decided to use the blunt tool of interest rate rises. Over the longer term, this should be effective in slowing an uncontrolled depreciation of the rouble by making it costly to sell the currency; however, in the short run the oil price is likely to be the most important determinant of the direction of the rouble”, explains Fidelity WI.

Could the Russian state be forced into defaulting on its debt, as it did in 1998?, ask the experts from the firm. “Overall, this seems unlikely. While there are some worrying parallels with 1998 when the oil price was also falling and Russia was also involved in an international conflict (an expensive campaign in Chechnya), the Russian government balance sheet today is much stronger than in 1998. General government debt is around 10% of GDP, whereas in 1998 it was 100%. The other main difference today is the CBR’s willingness to let the exchange rate float freely. As a result, unlike in 1998 a falling Rouble today can act as a shock absorber by balancing the dollar oil price falls and keeping fiscal balances stable”, they conclude.

Man Group Announces Acquisition of Silvermine Capital Management

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Man Group Announces Acquisition of Silvermine Capital Management
. Man Group anuncia la adquisición de Silvermine Capital Management

Man Group plc announced this week that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire Silvermine Capital Management LLC, a Connecticut-based leveraged loan manager with $3.8 billion of funds under management across nine active collateralised loan obligation (“CLO”) structures as of 30 November 2014. The acquisition is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2015, subject to certain approvals being obtained.

Silvermine is wholly-owned by the firm’s founders and senior staff members and is based in Stamford, Connecticut. The team of 17 focuses exclusively on managing US levered credit portfolios and, since inception in 2005, has executed 16 separate transactions totalling $6.7 billion.

Upon completion of the Acquisition, Silvermine will be integrated into Man GLG and will operate under the Man GLG Silvermine name which will complement Man GLG’s existing credit business. Silvermine’s team will remain in place under the leadership of two of the firm’s founders, G. Steven Kalin and Richard F. Kurth, who will continue to work alongside the other co-founders Aaron Meyer and Jonathan Marks.

The Acquisition follows Man Group’s recent acquisitions in the US of Pine Grove Asset Management LLC, Numeric Holdings LLC and the Merrill Lynch Alternative Investments LLC fund of hedge fund portfolio.

The regulatory capital requirement associated with the Acquisition is expected to be approximately $45 million. As of 30 November 2014, Silvermine’s run rate management fee revenues and PBT were $17 million and $8 million respectively, based on $3.8 billion in funds under management.

Mark Jones, co-CEO of Man GLG, stated, “The acquisition of Silvermine will transform our existing credit business and position us to benefit from strong demand for US CLOs and other credit strategies. Silvermine is a highly respected, specialised business with an excellent track record of outperformance. As part of Man Group, Silvermine will benefit from our world class infrastructure, distribution and access to capital and we are confident that this acquisition will bring meaningful advantages to our investors by further diversifying our offering.”

Steven Kalin and Richard Kurth, Managing Directors of Silvermine, commented, “We’re excited about the opportunities that joining Man Group will bring to us and to our investors. We have always been focused on identifying opportunities in the credit space that, given their risk/return proposition, deliver attractive performance for our clients. We are pleased to be joining forces with an organisation that not only embraces our firm’s entrepreneurial spirit, but plans to help foster that spirit and collaborate with us to further grow the business”.

DAB Bank Acquisition: a Major Step in the Development of BNP Paribas in Germany

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BNP Paribas has closed the acquisition of 81.4% stake in DAB Bank AG from Unicredit AG, together with the voluntary offer to minority shareholders. Following this step, BNP Paribas now controls 91.7% of DAB Bank’s capital and announces its intention to perform a squeeze-out on the remaining shares. Through this acquisition BNP Paribas strongly boosts its retail presence in Germany.

With DAB Bank and Consorsbank, BNP Paribas ranks fifth digital bank in Germany serving 1.4 million clients and first online broker with 8.7 million executed trades for the first nine months of the year. This acquisition also provides foundation for retail business in Austria, where the Group intends to develop direktanlage.at into a full-blown digital retail bank. Overall, at the end of September 2014, the total deposits of Consorsbank and DAB Bank reached 17Bn EUR and total assets under management 47Bn EUR.

“This operation once more confirms our strategic ambition to build a long term franchise in Germany, in line with our development plan in the Retail, the Corporate and the Institutional segments. DAB now joining our set-up in Germany represents a key contribution to grow our clients’ and deposits’ base serving the German economy. The combined client base puts us in a position to come close to the top 3 online banks in the country.” says Camille Fohl, Head of BNP Paribas Germany and Chairman of the Management Board in Germany.

Kai Friedrich, CEO of Consorsbank and coordinator of the BNP Paribas Retail activities in Germany, confirms: “the clients of DAB Bank and Consorsbank will both benefit from this operation. We intend to offer to all our retail clients a fully-fledged banking offer and services, while maintaining state of the art platforms for active traders. At the same time, we will speed up the development of the B2B activity for the professional segment”.

“We welcome the employees and clients of DAB Bank to the BNP Paribas Group. This acquisition is a crucial strategic move, both for our development in Germany and to further grow our digital bank in Europe. BNP Paribas, with already 1.3 million digital clients through Hello bank!, will become one of the leader in Europe in this field, adapting to changing needs and behavior of our clients” concludes François Villeroy de Galhau, COO of BNP Paribas and Head of Domestic Markets.

Founded in 1994, same year as Consorsbank, DAB Bank has been experiencing rapid growth in its direct banking business, in particular recently since 2012. The Munich-based company is expanding its business with private clients, as well as through its B2B offer to the professional segments such as Independent Financial Advisers. DAB Bank in Germany and direktanlage.at its subsidiary in Austria, serve 575,000 and 68,000 clients, respectively. Their total deposits reached 5bn EUR and securities accounts stood at 31bn EUR end of September 2014.

In Germany, BNP Paribas already covers a broad range of client segments from retail to corporate and institutional with 13 businesses lines and more than 4,000 employees. Germany is a key market for BNP Paribas’ expansion in Europe, committing additional means and workforce with strong growth targets in terms of revenues.

Anne Tinyo to Lead Life Management Services for Wells Fargo Private Bank

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Wells Fargo Private Bank announced Anne Tinyo has been named head of its Life Management Services group. This program integrates life and wealth management solutions to help clients plan for their future. Its services assist with the challenges of life transitions and maintaining their personal and financial independence. In her role, Tinyo will be responsible for national leadership of the program, which

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Tinyo served as senior vice president of operations for 11 years at Los Angeles-based LivHOME Inc., a provider of at-home caregiving and geriatric care management services.

“Anne Tinyo brings tremendous experience working with older adults and helping them maintain independence, financial stability and quality of life,” said Jeff Savage, head of Specialized Wealth Services at Wells Fargo Private Bank. “Her passion working with clients, along with her practical experience in this field, makes her a perfect match to run this important business for Wells Fargo.”

Wells Fargo Life Management Services is one of nine lines of business that comprise Specialized Wealth Services, a part of Wells Fargo Private Bank’s Investment and Fiduciary Services. Life Management Services serves clients in 32 states and more than 100 markets nationwide.

“Within the next 20 to 30 years, more than 75 million baby boomers will surpass the age of 60, and people aged 90 and above are the fastest growing segment of our population today, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite these statistics, there is still a lot of evidence that people fail to consider how they will manage their health and finances, and maintain their lifestyles as they age. I look forward to having a meaningful impact on our clients,” said Tinyo.

A native of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, and a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, Tinyo will be located in Los Angeles.

Erik Davidson Named Chief Investment Officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank

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Wells Fargo Private Bank nombra a Erik Davidson director general de Inversiones
Erik Davidson Named Chief Investment Officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank . Erik Davidson Named Chief Investment Officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank

Wells Fargo Private Bank has announced Erik Davidson has been named chief investment officer, to serve as the business’s lead investment professional. He replaces Dean Junkans, who retires at the end of this year.

In this role, Davidson will oversee The Private Bank’s global equity, fixed income portfolio management and research, alternative investments, guided portfolios, investment products, investment tools and investment analytics. He will also jointly oversee the firm’s regional chief investment officers and investment and fiduciary senior directors, in partnership with regional leadership.

Davidson has been with The Private Bank for 10 years in a number of investment leadership positions at both the regional and national level, including deputy chief investment officer, managing director of investments, senior director of investments and regional investment manager.

“Erik has a tremendous combination of investment acumen, client focus and institutional knowledge, which positions him very well for this important role,” said Jay Welker, head of Wells Fargo Private Bank. “His passion for the investment industry and commitment to our unique business model will add tremendous value for our clients.”

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Davidson was president and co-chief executive officer of a separately managed account (SMA) outsourcing company. He was also a managing director at Franklin Templeton Investments, and he held several fixed income positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, including spending many years in Asia. He received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management and a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Wells Fargo Private Bank, the fourth largest wealth management provider in the United States (Barron’s 2014), offers a full range of financial services and products to help individuals and families build, manage, preserve and transfer their wealth. The Private Bank serves clients across North America and internationally and has more than $190 billion in assets under management (9/30/14).