Butterfield Private Bank believes it can compete against many of the big names in private banking by providing a boutique approach to privat...

Butterfield Private Bank believes it can compete against many of the big names in private banking by providing a boutique approach to private banking, but backed up by a major international banking operation.

“This is our unique selling point,” said Paul Turtle, chief executive of Butterfield Private Bank in London. “And it’s proving to be successful.”

The Bermuda-based bank proved it was serious about growing a wealth management business in the UK when it bought private bank Leopold Joseph in April 2004. Leopold Joseph gave Butterfield much needed asset management skills and strong relationships with professional advisors such as lawyers and accountants.

Butterfield brought many lending and treasury skills to the new proposition and these complementary skills have underpinned the success of the new firm, says Mr Turtle.

“The integration of Leopold Joseph has gone extremely smoothly – few clients have departed. In fact, we have grown the client base substantially since the acquisition and many of these new clients have signed up due to personal recommendations from Leopold clients.”

Butterfield Private Bank has gone out and developed strong relationships with the independent financial advisor market, which has driven client growth. “Making IFAs aware of our service proposition and to feel comfortable with that proposition has been very important to our overall strategy,” said Mr Turtle, who used to head Cater Allen Private Bank, which is owned by the UK commercial bank, Abbey.

Strong relationships with IFAs are partly as a result of the bank’s strength in providing pension plans to high net worth individuals. “We offer our clients more than 10 different pension plans – I think this is more than many of our competitors do,” said Mr Turtle.

It is hardly surprising that Butterfield sees good growth in this area in the years ahead with the introduction of self invested personal pensions and so-called "A- Day" just around the corner.

Butterfield has much to say in the area of SIPPs and continues to arrange seminars for its clients on the implications of the new pension schemes. Most recently, the bank is urging professional advisors to review their clients’ SIPP requirements and make sure they get the right advice from pension specialists.

Mr Turtle also believes the bank has developed expertise in the area of financial issues surrounding divorce. “We can provide a number of services including some lending products tailored around major divorce cases.”

Again, Butterfield appears well placed to take advantage of this area as the number of expensive divorces continues to creep up.

Commercial real estate investing is also an area the bank has developed strong expertise in, according to its chief executive.

The bank prides itself on its plain vanilla banking expertise with a number of interesting add-ons. “Basic banking with a twist,” said Mr Turtle.

What of the future? Butterfield would like to develop a more regional approach to private banking and recently hired a business development manager for the North-East of England as part of this strategy.

“Obviously, UK regional wealth trends are something we are looking at and this will probably lead us to opening new offices,” said Mr Turtle. But where those offices will be are being kept under lock and key at the present time.

Asked whether Butterfield foresaw further purchases along the same lines of Leopold, Mr Turtle said that such acquisitions would most likely be more opportunistic at this time.

“Organic growth is what we are concentrating on at this present time, which will continue to serve us well.”