Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privee pips rivals to secure sponsorship of «NRI event of the year.»
If an association with marquee events is the key to tapping niche demographics for private banks, Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) may have hit the proverbial sixer with its sponsorship of the ICC Cricket World Cup in England starting this week.
Sharing the spotlight with global luxury brands such as Hublot and Veuve Clicquot, the Swiss lender is the only bank to be featured in sponsorship credits that will be beamed globally when ten nations face-off to be in the final on 14 July. All of the matches will be played in England, for the first time in two decades.
British Banks Absent
«It is truly surprising that the likes of HSBC and Standard Chartered are not sponsors,» says one Non-Resident Indian (NRI) banker. «Host nation England is the favourite to win while India, is the largest and hence most commercially valuable cricket playing nation in the world, these banks straddle both markets,» he adds.
«UBP would have been farthest from my mind,» he said if he had been asked to guess which private banks would have been willing to pay top dollar for sponsorship, even though the bank has a well-established NRI business thanks in part to its acquisition of Coutts.
Hottest Ticket in Town
Regardless of whether they are sponsors or not, most banks with aspirations for the NRI market – the likes of Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse among others – have organized anything from a few seats to a hospitality box for their clients to attend these matches accompanied by a few select relationship managers and NRI team heads.
This year's tournament is billed to be the most popular ever with over 3.2 million people applying for a chance to buy one of 800,000 tickets.
«Every single NRI banker and wealthy Indian or Pakistani will want to be seen at least one of these matches,» confirms the banker who thinks the India vs. Pakistan match in Manchester on the 16 June is the hottest ticket in town.
Wine, Dine, and Open Accounts
«During the Anshu years Deutsche Bank used the World Cup as a way to wine, dine and open accounts,» he says referring to erstwhile Deutsche Bank co-head Anshu Jain who was often seen sharing a box at World Cup cricket matches with billionaires like Mukesh Ambani and Laxmi Mittal.
