Deutsche Bank will enhance the service it provides to the richest of its clients. A bid that sounds familiar in as much as its competitors have already embarked on a similar strategy.
Deutsche Bank, which is Germany’s largest bank, has launched a new division at the wealth management arm, it said in a statement. The unit is called Institutional Wealth Partners (IWP) and is designed to provide services to the super rich and their family offices.
The offering includes tailor-made loans, corporate finance and investments, with the expertise provided by the investment bank of Deutsche and its corporate clients' business. IWP will act as a link between wealth management and the core business of the bank.
Core Element of Credit Suisse Strategy
The strategy rings a bell. When Tidjane Thiam took over as chief executive of Credit Suisse in 2015, the Swiss bank made it a priority to turn around its fortunes by establishing a similar across its divisions.
The latest addition to the structure of Credit Suisse was dubbed ITS, which sees a cooperation of the trading arm and the Swiss and global wealth management units. The Swiss bank recently reported a double-digit growth rate for the unit and will now export the success story to Asia.
An Insider's View
UBS has also been eager to establish the investment bank as a service provider for the wealth management business. IPS, the unit that delivers product, wealth planning as well as advisory solutions to relationship managers is drawing heavily on investment banking knowhow. Deutsche Bank has a product platform called GPS that is similar in shape and purpose.
We will never know whether or not Deutsche Bank was inspired by the Swiss rivals when it designed the IWP unit. But Claudio de Sanctis (pictured above), head of Europe at the wealth management arm, worked for Credit Suisse for years and was able to study its structure from close up.
We will be more flexible in reacting to customer demands by adding the knowledge from other divisions to our wealth management service, de Sanctis was quoted as saying in the statement.
