Hire from the Big Four? No thanks, say global private banks
Written by Tessa Bedford - www.efinancialcareers.com.auAre you managing high-net-worth clients for a Big Four banking group? Do you yearn to become a proper private banker at an international firm?
Unfortunately your proposed career path faces challenges – serious ones.
The likes of Credit Suisse, UBS, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley and Citi want to recruit more relationship managers, but despite a talent shortage, they aren’t keen on poaching from the Aussie commercial banks.
Before the GFC, the global private banks did sometimes hire Big Four candidates, but with mixed results. “When they moved across, their clients often didn’t come because they were too entrenched at the Big Four,” says Caan Krsztew-Ivanow, a search consultant at H Capital.
After the financial crisis struck, Credit Suisse’s hirings from ANZ “didn’t work out”, according to a headhunter who asked not to be named.
While private banking recruitment is now rising again, it is more selective than pre-GFC, with teams growing by only one or two people at a time. International firms only want professionals with the right skill sets.
It's the skills, stupid.
In general terms, private bankers at the Big Four deal about 60 per cent with lending products and 40 per cent with investments, says Krsztew-Ivanow, while at the globals the ratio is about 80 per cent in favour of sophisticated investments.
“Big Four bankers simply lack the right product experience to make the transition. You might have $400m under management, but it’s no good if that’s all lending products. It’s your skill set that matters, whether you can build the business,” he tells eFinancialCareers.com.au.
Foreign firms want candidates with multi asset-class, multi currency knowledge, says Toby Greenane, Pacific Rim executive search, banking & finance, Bluefin Resources.
“They are really looking for people who can actively participate in conversations about European rates or soft commodities out of the US, for example. There is a perception that the Big Four simply don’t have the product offering or skill base to nurture people with that knowledge, but obviously there are exceptions to the rule,” adds Greenane.
He says private banks prefer to poach from each other. But, according to Krsztew-Ivanow, CEOs, CIOs and portfolio managers from wealth management firms and hedge funds are also in demand. “They have the networks, they understand the products and are experienced at running their own portfolios.”
