Funds Hub

from Summit Notebook:

Private banking: you may be worth it

Those who tend to avoid posh restaurants in Geneva’s expensive Rue du Rhone district and famed private banks because they believe they are not rich enough may be given a second chance at century-old wealth manager Julius Baer.

The Swiss private bank, which has made its name thanks to the services it offers to the ultra-rich, believe its powerful high-end brand may be keeping potential clients away.

“It’s a bit like the nice chic restaurant on Rue du Rhone you walk by 10 times and think: “I am not so sure I can go in there, it might be a bit sophisticated,” Boris Collardi, Chief Executive of Bank Julius Baer, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Geneva.

“And then you end up going in there and you have a wonderful meal.”

Private banking services at Julius Baer start at around 1 million Swiss francs.

Worth trying?

The morgue after Christmas

Around this Christmastide banks will begin to take a strict approach to companies running out of money, according to Simon Davies, managing director of The Blackstone Group.  

 

 

He said at the Reuters Restructuring Summit in London that by the end of the year banks will issue “in patient”, “out patient” or “morgue” judgements as they go about the business to decide who gets much needed loans and who does not.

You can’t win ‘em all

 Ah well, even superstar hedge fund managers can’t always get their timing spot on.

U.S. hedge fund boss John Paulson had been sitting on a 300 million pound profit on his bet against British bank Barclays just three months ago, but by holding on for too long has seen most of that gain wiped out.