Coutts Private Office, a division of the UK bank that deals with ultra high net worth clients, said today that it has appointed former HSBC Private Bank manager Rupert Allison as a senior client partner.

The firm said the appointment was among a number of hires planned for this year as it extends its UK business into a global offering.

Mr Allison will report to Duncan MacIntyre, global head of Coutts Private Office, the bank, which is part of Royal Bank of Scotland, said in a statement.

Mr Allison will look after clients whose assets will typically exceed £30 (around $47.5 million) million net, or those who have more than £10 million available to be invested.

In his most recent job, Mr Allison most latterly from HSBC Private Bank where he spent three years as a relationship manager/director, looking after clients from their ultra-high-net-worth UK private client base, managing assets in excess of £500 million.

Prior to his time at HSBC, Mr Allison spent 15 years with Barclays Wealth through a variety of roles, working his way up to relationship manager and director, again looking after ultra-high-net-worth clients but also with executive responsibility for the entire business.

“Rupert, who will be based in London, is the first of several appointments of highly qualified and experienced bankers that we have planned for this year and will go on to work with many of the UK’s most successful individuals and families,” Mr MacIntyre said.

“We’ve also recently announced plans to build on our success in the UK by extending the Coutts Private Office business to a global offering and are actively recruiting to treble the size of the team, including additional hires in the UK and new hires in Asia and the Middle East,” he said.

The Coutts Private Office was launched in 2005 to cater specifically for clients with assets in excess of £30 million net worth. In total, it oversees client assets worth £3.7 billion.