Our strengths and strategy to grow our wealth management business, in NYC and beyond!

Six weeks after the grand opening of our private banking center in Manhattan, I still feel empowered by the energy and enthusiasm of our US wealth management teams serving our local clients. I want to share some insights on this opening, and how it fits our global approach to wealth management.

Beyond its symbolic dimension, this new center is considerably strengthening our world-wide set-up. By investing in the USA, in Europe and in Asia, BNP Paribas Wealth Management confirms its position as a growing leader in a rapidly expanding world wealth market. We are already the largest wealth manager in the Eurozone, Top 10 worldwide, and recently awarded Best in Europe, in APAC and in the Western US. And you have to know that it is quite rare to invest like we do in all these regions at the same time.  Here are some concrete steps that we have taken in our growth strategy, since the beginning of the year:

• We have acquired the private banking activities of ABN Amro in Luxembourg,
• Thanks to our recent acquisition of the Raiffeisen banking activities in Poland, we will be a leading private bank in this dynamic European country, and of course,
• We have now opened our wealth management center in New York City!

Our set-up puts us at the crossroads of many opportunities to serve HNWI clients in the U.S. We already have a strong client base in Bank of the West and we have been successfully growing our wealth management franchise over the past few years, such as with family offices and independent advisors.

So what makes us different? We benefit from our strong link with all the Eurozone countries, where we are the leading wealth manager. And we can accompany our clients not just from the Eurozone but from around the world, more than 70 countries in total, to settle in NYC. In addition, BNP Paribas has a long track record in our U.S. wholesale banking business based in New York, and this puts us in contact with many CEOs and C-suite executives, all potential clients.

Let’s not forget that the potential market is huge, and still growing: in New York alone, there are no less than 330,000 millionaires and almost 100 billionaires!

So how else are we attracting clients? Our vision of wealth management is crystal clear: we are seeing two major trends, and we are addressing both:

• First our world is increasingly digital. This comes as no surprise. Our clients want an immediate, interactive and smooth experience, enhanced by powerful digital tools. At Bank of the West Wealth Management and in all our wealth management businesses around the world, we are co-creating with our clients and Fintechs those tools and solutions that respond to our clients’ expectations.
• Second, our clients are increasingly searching to have positive impact with their wealth. To address their growing desire to make a difference, we are expanding our positive impact investment solutions. Our clients can continue to count on our highly awarded philanthropy advisory service. 

We are ourselves walking the talk: as a financial institution, we are accelerating our own positive impact initiatives, all within the framework of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals,.

Our ambition is to serve and satisfy our wealth-management clients, by preserving, growing and designing solutions for transmitting their wealth. But not only. We must also address their changing expectations, be they high-performance digital tools or positive-impact investment options. And speaking of ambition, we will not become the largest private bank in New York City in the short term, but our very specific DNA and approach already position us as a valuable alternative!