UniCredit's wealthiest private banking client has a 40m-euro fortune

With 800 clients in its portfolio, the private banking unit of UniCredit Tiriac Bank is getting ready to end the year with managed assets worth 300m euros.
“Our target in the past year has been to get close to the Western limit, of 300- 400,000 euros (in terms of clients’ personal wealth i.e.). To be able to operate a portfolio diversification and come up with added value, you need larger sums,” says Monica Ionescu, head of the private banking unit of UniCredit Tiriac Bank.
Thus, UniCredit is getting ready for an additional segmentation of its portfolio this autumn, with part of customers, those with more modest fortunes, to be included in a model of affluent banking. At present, the average value of managed fortunes stands at 250,000 euros.
Out of the current portfolio, around 800 clients will qualify for private banking services once the threshold is raised, with the rest to be included in the affluent model. Thus, the average value of client fortunes under management will rise to 300,000 euros.
“There are not many clients with fortunes of above 10m euros. The biggest fortune under management is of 40m euros and the client has an aggressive investor profile,” Ionescu says.
With the implementation of the new model, UniCredit is also poised to expand its network of private banking branches countrywide. At present, the private banking unit is made up of 11 client relation managers, but they are all concentrated in the branch in Bucharest. Another 7 will be added by yearend, with offices in some branches in major cities.
The private banking market has seen several players impose bigger thresholds on clients whereas in previous years the threshold had gone down to 50,000 euros.
The wealthy have access to sophisticated investment products, provided by the foreign subsidiaries of groups.
2009 has been the most frantic year in Monica Ionescu’s private banker career and yet it has also brought opportunities. “(…) During this period, a lot of money has come from real estate from those who managed to sell in time. This is why private banking hasn’t been hurt by the crisis”, Ionescu states.
She says clients are now focusing on safe placements, with foreign currency bonds in highest demand.