HSBC Private Bank has added a new dedicated Latin American desk to its UK international platform, appointing Roberto Islas Salcedo as director and Benjamin Reid as a relationship executive – both of whom join from RBC Wealth Management.

In their new roles both Salcedo and Reid report to Charles Boulton, managing director, international.

Salcedo was latterly head of Latin America in the British Isles at RBC Wealth Management. Before joining RBC in 2008, he spent two years at Clariden Leu Asset Management as a Latin American banker and he also previously spent five years at Citi Private Bank, holding various roles within the bank’s Mexican onshore unit, and its London-based Gulf team and Iberia desk.

Reid was formerly an assistant wealth manager on RBC Wealth Management’s Latin American desk for close to two years; before this he was a client service associate on the Iberian desk at Merrill Lynch.

Latin America is regarded by HSBC Private Bank as one of the most exciting growth areas in the financial markets, Charles Boulton, managing director, international, said in a statement. In light of the region’s growth prospects, and HSBC’s existing global footprint in the emerging markets, “we felt it appropriate to offer our clients a dedicated desk,” he said.

HSBC joins a number of wealth management firms, such as Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, in ramping up its Latin American operations in response to the region’s growing wealth. This year’s Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report put the region’s number of high net worth individuals at 0.5 million, and also highlighted the unusually high proportion of ultra-wealthy people among its HNW population: 2.4 per of Latin America’s HNW individuals are considered ultra high net worth, compared to a global average of 0.9 per cent.