Do You Have A "personal" Banker At Your Home Country Bank?

[Naam]

I bank with UBS and have 2 accounts. One is a checking account based in London and is used as my 'slush fund' and the other is my investment account which is based in Jersey and the latter is very actively managed by UBS. I have a single point of contact and that person calls me periodically to advise/seek permission on moving funds around and to give me updates on how he sees the coming months from a financial perspective. The same contact visits me once a year in Chiang Mai for a full review of my financial situation which I find excellent.

I am 3 years in with UBS and perfectly satisfied to date. I believe minimum investment is US $250k or equivalent in other currencies.

CS and UBS Singapore require minimum assets of CHF or USD 1 million. both banks offer private banking only and not the whole range of services. clients with lower net worth are accepted with a little help from friends who bank already with them.

[lannarebirth]

I bank with UBS and have 2 accounts. One is a checking account based in London and is used as my 'slush fund' and the other is my investment account which is based in Jersey and the latter is very actively managed by UBS. I have a single point of contact and that person calls me periodically to advise/seek permission on moving funds around and to give me updates on how he sees the coming months from a financial perspective. The same contact visits me once a year in Chiang Mai for a full review of my financial situation which I find excellent.

I am 3 years in with UBS and perfectly satisfied to date. I believe minimum investment is US $250k or equivalent in other currencies.

CS and UBS Singapore require minimum assets of CHF or USD 1 million. both banks offer private banking only and not the whole range of services. clients with lower net worth are accepted with a little help from friends who bank already with them.

How times change. When I opened my CS account, a bagful was enough.

[Naam]

How times change. When I opened my CS account, a bagful was enough.

when both of us opened our first accounts wasn't that around the time when Moses led the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land?

[Naam]

a bagful was enough

if you come with a bagful of cash now to open an account you will see a lot of shaking heads in almost all banks.

[lannarebirth]

a bagful was enough

if you come with a bagful of cash now to open an account you will see a lot of shaking heads in almost all banks.

When CS bought First Boston and UBS bought Warburg the US SEC had all kinds of conditions attached. Foreign banks buying US chartered institutions must become "more transparent" in order to acquire these US based businesses. Those were big events in the constantly shifting world of private banking.

[Mahseer]

UBS accepted me due to brother in law having worked there for 20 odd years but they still insisted on the US $250k I quoted.

[Naam]

I bank with UBS and have 2 accounts. One is a checking account based in London and is used as my 'slush fund' and the other is my investment account which is based in Jersey and the latter is very actively managed by UBS. I have a single point of contact and that person calls me periodically to advise/seek permission on moving funds around and to give me updates on how he sees the coming months from a financial perspective. The same contact visits me once a year in Chiang Mai for a full review of my financial situation which I find excellent.

I am 3 years in with UBS and perfectly satisfied to date. I believe minimum investment is US $250k or equivalent in other currencies.

are you happy with the performance Mahseer?

[Mahseer]

I bank with UBS and have 2 accounts. One is a checking account based in London and is used as my 'slush fund' and the other is my investment account which is based in Jersey and the latter is very actively managed by UBS. I have a single point of contact and that person calls me periodically to advise/seek permission on moving funds around and to give me updates on how he sees the coming months from a financial perspective. The same contact visits me once a year in Chiang Mai for a full review of my financial situation which I find excellent.

I am 3 years in with UBS and perfectly satisfied to date. I believe minimum investment is US $250k or equivalent in other currencies.

are you happy with the performance Mahseer?

I think the 3 years need to be broken down 1 by 1 and each evaluated to give a true answer but overall yes I am but if anyone asked have I lost money in recent financial turmoil then the answer would be yes but amount has been minimal - less than 5% due to active management where other investments I have away from UBS have suffered far worse. I was told October last year that each of the previous 6 years were easy to make money but 08 would be mightily difficult so it's not all roses but I appreciate the honest assessment rather than than usual type of verbage I have seen from other major players.

Yes happy to date.

[Naam]

Yes happy to date.

i was considering to let UBS manage a part of my assets but the fees in Singapore are an outrageous 2% p.a., no matter whether profit or loss was made. moreover, when checking the average performance of UBS's "low risk depot" i was quite disappointed as i can beat that performance with just cash spread into half a dozen currencies.

[Mahseer]

Naam, I am not promoting UBS in anyway just answering the original question and I find they suite my requirements but have no doubt that others with far more financial knowledge than I can do better elsewhere. Personally I have complete capability to turn $2million into 1 all on my very own but to do the reverse to any degree I require the sort of assistance that UBS provides.

Cheers

[cmsally]

Personal bankers are good in that you have a number and email to contact so that you get through to a real person.

Anyone that has been through answer machine hel_l will appreciate that.

If you have over a certain amount there is normally no extra charge for a personal point of contact.

However when it comes to advice, it is normally based around products to sell.

In fact once I experienced what could almost be harassment by one, with some rather nastily phrased emails about how I would regret it if I didn't buy such and such a product by the end of the year. (Chasing his end of the year target I would guess).

I wasn't amused and passed it on to a friend who is senior management at that particular bank.

Couple of weeks later got an email that said Mr. XXX is no longer your personal banker and no longer works for xxx Bank

XXX bank takes no responsibility for any emails or contact made by him after xxx date etc.

Personal banker bites the dust

[Naam]

Naam, I am not promoting UBS in anyway just answering the original question and I find they suite my requirements but have no doubt that others with far more financial knowledge than I can do better elsewhere. Personally I have complete capability to turn $2million into 1 all on my very own but to do the reverse to any degree I require the sort of assistance that UBS provides.

Cheers

i am well aware of that Mahseer and would like to add that i am quite happy being a UBS client. for me it is interesting to compare UBS in different locations. in your case Jersey, in my case Singapore.

[Naam]

Personal bankers are good in that you have a number and email to contact so that you get through to a real person.

Anyone that has been through answer machine hel_l will appreciate that. If you have over a certain amount there is normally no extra charge for a personal point of contact.

never experienced an answering machine with any bank where i was a client and i have never heard of an extra charge for a personal point of contact. the team i am dealing with consists of 14 persons and i have 14 fixed lines and double that of mobile numbers to call. but it hardly ever happened that i had to call a second or a third number to make contact. the reason could be the time difference, i.e. i call when most of the clients who live in a different time zone are still sleeping.

[harleyclarkey]

Personal bankers are good in that you have a number and email to contact so that you get through to a real person.

Anyone that has been through answer machine hel_l will appreciate that. If you have over a certain amount there is normally no extra charge for a personal point of contact.

never experienced an answering machine with any bank where i was a client and i have never heard of an extra charge for a personal point of contact. the team i am dealing with consists of 14 persons and i have 14 fixed lines and double that of mobile numbers to call. but it hardly ever happened that i had to call a second or a third number to make contact. the reason could be the time difference, i.e. i call when most of the clients who live in a different time zone are still sleeping.

You are a lucky man ...I have a UK account and, to the best of my knowledge, all the major UK banks have call centres. These are horrible places to deal with. Totally impersonal, indifferent and robotic.

I can't handle these machine like centres and always get the direct numbers for the branch.

In Ireland, my home country, I do have an account manager that deals with me directly. This saves me time and hassle and means I build up a relationship to the point of getting finance over the phone....paper work to be filled in later. But that's because I am stinking filty rich........LOL

[aglae4]

Expats: Do you have an extra special relationship with your home country bank, a PERSONAL BANKER?

This is something you usually get by using multiple services of a financial institution and having enough money assets there to qualify for their elite services: a PERSONAL banker.

I had a personal banker.....This person contacted me himself twice. Can it be that it was because I had big money on my accounts on that moment?.......I told him that I did need no advice about how to use it......In that time, the bank even phoned to my thai phonenumber!!!!!

But, when I needed some help with a Visa card later, everybody seemed to have desappeared! I only asked to check why my Visacard was refused sometimes (technical problem, now I know). And a little later I discovered that my card was blocked by my bank in Belgium and they made a new one. That I could get in the bank 3 months later when I went there for holidays...... I was so happy that I had more than one card and more than one bank .....Otherwise I was left there with no money and no creditcard......

I needed them once more about one year later (for the most of my banking I am using internetbanking). And again, nobody there!

I changed to the other bank that I used just a little before and got also problems with that bank.

There, they promised that they could do international transfer from my account in Belgium to my bank account in Thailand (same name). They promised I would only have to send an email.......But when I needed the money, it was not possible! They asked me to go to the bank to sign a document......Grrrrrrrrrr!

Conclusion ; the banks only help you until they get your money, but when you need a service later you cannot expect too much.

I will keep the bank that I have now : no personal banker (I find my solutions myself!) but also no costs, not even on the creditcards....That is the best I can expect I think.....

As I worked myself in a bank for 35 years, I do not need too much help with it! And I also do not have a business here. I am lucky.

I am only sure of one thing : it is since I stopped to work there that all the problems started for them ! Before, the service was much better......

[barry1312]

Personal Bankers seem to have almost completely disapeared unless your a high net worth client, the only bank I know of that does this is Standard Bank in their offshore division in the Isle of Man, but you have to keep at least 3,000GBP or currency equivalent in the account, if thats any help.

[NotNew2You]

Jing...you have to define "personal banker" as the term can encompass different things. Anything to basically a financial services salesmans at some institutions, a single point of contact person for you to interface with at a large financial conglomerate who facilitates your transactions with the institution, to very person banking and trust services provided by private banks and trust banks.

In my case, my Citigold "personal banker" is basically a single point of contact for me at Citicorp. Anything transactions that I have to do or changes to my accounts, if I want, I can do through him, either in person, by mail, or email (depending on the transaction). If I want, I he would also recommend Citi products to me (but my affairs are entirely self-directed) so this is of no interest to me. Also, at US and international Citi branches, If I need teller services, I can relax in the the private Citigold lounges and enjoy an espresso while waiting for my transaction to be handled by branch staff.

[Naam]

Personal bankers are good in that you have a number and email to contact so that you get through to a real person.

Anyone that has been through answer machine hel_l will appreciate that. If you have over a certain amount there is normally no extra charge for a personal point of contact.

never experienced an answering machine with any bank where i was a client and i have never heard of an extra charge for a personal point of contact. the team i am dealing with consists of 14 persons and i have 14 fixed lines and double that of mobile numbers to call. but it hardly ever happened that i had to call a second or a third number to make contact. the reason could be the time difference, i.e. i call when most of the clients who live in a different time zone are still sleeping.

You are a lucky man ...I have a UK account and, to the best of my knowledge, all the major UK banks have call centres. These are horrible places to deal with. Totally impersonal, indifferent and robotic.

I can't handle these machine like centres and always get the direct numbers for the branch.

that must apply for some "normal" accounts and clients who do not trade. it is impossible for a call center to handle trades such as "saw an ask of 95.625 for XS0203695233, would like to purchase €100k and at the same i would like to get partly rid of XS0274894350, nominal €75k... what bids do you see on your screen?" even though i advise by e-mail and then wait a few minutes before i call to avoid misunderstandings as far as code numbers are concerned i expect my banker or any of his assistants to attend the business immediately. the ladies and gents in a call center wouldn't have the slightest idea what i am talking about