{"id":3970,"date":"2021-03-12T00:28:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T23:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simtrade.fr\/blog_simtrade\/?p=3970"},"modified":"2026-02-13T09:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:00:07","slug":"private-banking-evolving-challenging-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simtrade.fr\/blog_simtrade\/private-banking-evolving-challenging-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Private banking: evolving in a challenging environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"H\u00e9l\u00e8ne<\/a><\/p>\n

This article written by H\u00e9l\u00e8ne VAGUET-AUBERT<\/a>\u00a0(ESSEC Business School, Master in Strategy & Management of International Business (SMIB), 2020-2021) discusses the challenging environment in private banking based on her experience at the Banque Internationale \u00e0 Luxembourg (BIL).<\/p>\n

Banque Internationale \u00e0 Luxembourg (BIL)<\/h2>\n

Banque Internationale \u00e0 Luxembourg (BIL) was founded in 1856 and is now steered by Marcel Leyers, appointed as director and chairman of BIL\u2019s executive committee in 2019 (BIL, 2021). Being a top bank for over 160 years and being owned to a 10% extent by the Luxembourgish government, BIL supports Luxembourg\u2019s economy at all levels. BIL has also established itself as top international player thanks to its international subsidiaries. BIL\u2019s international scope, 2,000 top-skilled employees worldwide, strong financial results and growth confirms its systemic importance.<\/p>\n

Headquarters of Banque Internationale \u00e0 Luxembourg (BIL)\"BanqueSource: BIL<\/center>BIL brings together all its banking business lines under a common umbrella in order to propose top-of-the-range solutions tailored to the requirements of a very diverse client base. Indeed, the bank has all the financial products and expertise necessary to fulfill all of its clients\u2019 needs: private banking, retail banking, corporate banking and financial markets. As of H1 2019, the bank had a \u20ac45 million profit and \u20ac41.9 million of assets under management.<\/p>\n

As BIL\u2019s \u201ccreate, collaborate, care\u201d mission statement clearly indicates, BIL\u2019s marketing strategy is client oriented. BIL\u2019s objectives are to focus on core competencies to boost its revenues. To do so, BIL\u2019s short term strategy is to strengthen its activities in mature markets such as Luxembourg and Switzerland. On the long term, BIL\u2019s objective is to leverage the potential of Legend Holdings and the Chinese private banking market.<\/p>\n

My internship at BIL<\/h2>\n

Passionate by strategy and sales, and willing to acquire international experience in the financial sector, I carried out a six-month internship in the Sales Management Department of Banque Internationale \u00e0 Luxembourg (BIL). In this department, I worked with a team of five international people whose role was to design strategy, sales and marketing solutions to be the direct support of BIL front office and the private banking clients\u2019 indirect support. During this internship, the responsibilities that I had where divided in two parts: on the one hand, sales and marketing, and on the other hand, strategy.<\/p>\n

First, regarding the sales and marketing part, my role was to analyze the performance of the bonds and equity financial markets and mutual funds as well to develop weekly sell\/buy\/hold recommendations regarding BIL products. Once these sales recommendations were made, my role was to analyze the performance of wealth managers from BIL Europe, Asia and Middle East. Finally, once BIL products and wealth managers\u2019 performances were analyzed, I had the opportunity to design relevant marketing content (pitch book containing the details of the financial products) for BIL 20,000 private banking clients.<\/p>\n

Second, regarding the more strategic parts, I contributed to the management of two projects at the group level: digitalization of the commercial process on a selection of 2,500 products and repositioning of the private banking service offering targeting 2,000 customers.<\/p>\n

Private banking<\/h2>\n

The financial concept that was the most linked to my experience at BIL is the concept of private banking. Private banking is the main subset of wealth management, it offers investment, banking and other financial services to high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) on different markets. The adjective \u201cprivate\u201d emphasizes a more consumer-centered approach than what is offered by retail banks since each client is usually assigned to dedicated relationship managers and benefits from tailor-made products. Historically, HNWI from different markets or private banks\u2019 target, were individuals with liquidity over $2 million. However, now, it is possible to open a private banking account with cash and\/or financial assets of $250,000. Hence, HNWIs segments that wealth management institutions such as private banks target can be divided into four categories based on their income:<\/p>\n