The firm - part of Toronto-listed Royal Bank of Canada - has been building up an onshore UK business, having hired Philip Harris to the role of head, UK domestic wealth management, last year, taking up his post in September. Mr Harris is a veteran of the industry: he was one of the founders of the Scott Goodman Harris business that was bought by UBS more than five years ago.

“I will be recruiting senior wealth managers in the UK wealth management space initially in London and the South-East, but we may well grow into other major cities. In terms of targets for size, maintaining the cream of the crop in wealth managers does not happen overnight,” Mr Harris told WealthBriefing in a recent interview at the firm’s offices in the City.

For an example of a recent hire, the firm has appointed Jonathan Gold as a director, joining from Alliance Bernstein Global Wealth Management.

“In addition, I think that when the metric is headcount, quality suffers. However I would say that within 5 years, I expect to see some 30 to 40 top performing bankers representing our business unit,” Mr Harris said.

RBC Wealth Management decided to grow an onshore business organically because, although it had been looking to acquire a business, it had not found a business that met its criteria, he said.

“We believe that there is a gap in the UK domestic wealth management market that we can fill with our proposition, which is based on three themes. Firstly, private banking is itself a "luxury food," not a commoditised one. Great effort goes into recognising and working to this reality - for example, I limit the number of relationships that our wealth managers have to ensure a truly bespoke service,” he said.

“Then there is the benefit of being part of one of the world's safest and most secure banks, which is extremely appealing to clients who may have been adversely affected by the credit crisis. As a Canadian institution, RBC was not impacted like many of our competitors in the credit crisis.

It remains one of only 8 banks with a Moody's AAA rating,” Mr Harris continued.

“Finally, there is the simple yet differentiating strategy of giving clients what they need, not what the financial institution wants to sell. So, no product push! We aim to understand our clients properly - not just financially - and pride ourselves on the the time we dedicate to getting this bit right,” Mr Harris said.

Strength

The Canadian bank is certainly acting from a position of strength. Last week, Royal Bank of Canada reported net income from its wealth management operations of C$219 million (around $212 million) for the quarter ended 31 January 2010, up by C$58 million, or 36 per cent, from the previous quarter, and up by C$91 million or 71 per cent year-over-year.

"We position ourselves as a "boutique with a balance sheet", i.e. a provider that is extremely bespoke in its approach to clients, but that has the backing and capabilities of a major financial player. I think that there are few houses that take this approach,” said Mr Harris.

There is still more to be done in raising RBC’s profile in the UK industry, Mr Harris said. 

“We have a globally acknowledged brand, but it is less recognised in the UK, so gaining awareness of what we are doing is one of our main priorities,” he said. “Other challenges are optimising our business, developing a critical mass comprising the right people, and evaluating costs versus speed. Based on the experiences of working at bulge bracket wealth managers, and setting up my own boutique wealth management practice (which was subsequently sold to UBS), I feel positive about the direction of this business,” Mr Harris said.