Having an MBA is not one of the recruitment drivers for bankers at HSBC Private Bank in the US, according to Marlon Young, the bank’s chief executive officer for the Americas. “It’s more about skill sets,” he told WealthBriefing. “The art of listening is most important, along with high energy and the maturity that comes with at least 10 years of experience,” he said. “We look particularly at people who have a corporate or investment banking background as they tend to have the same level of sophistication as the clients. But even so it’ll take up to 6 months to train them.” “Willingness to work in a team is also very important, and we can always tell this at interview stage,” he added. “We can always add more people in New York, both on the international and domestic sides of the business. On the West Coast, it’s more domestic business in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Miami there’s a lot of international business.” HSBC Private Bank in the Americas concentrates on acquiring clients within its sweet spot of $25 – 200 million in net worth. And, in the US as the proportion of new wealth is larger than that of inherited wealth, the bank concentrates it’s efforts in five business segments: business owners; financial sponsors, such as hedge fund managers; real estate developers; active wealth, including retirees; and entertainment and media. “Typically, clients of this type have between 5 and 7 financial advisors, and they’re continually looking for the best investment ideas. We would expect to manage around 25 – 35 per cent of the wallet.” Mr Young points to a capacity issue in New York wealth management. “In New York we have more than enough clients so our efforts must go into selecting the best relationship managers to service them. If relationship managers move we usually find the client retains the account with us. And you can grow that account, especially if the client likes the new relationship manager. Extensive know-your-customer procedures can also deter clients changing banks too often.” In the Americas HSBC Private Bank has been generating double-digit growth for the last 5 years and has been hiring aggressively, but according to Mr Young, although there’s an unlimited appetite for new staff, the bank is not prepared to pay “silly money” to acquire new talent. “People should be keen to come to us because of the platform and because of the culture,” said Mr Young. “What we also stress is that this is a global bank – private banking operations are split evenly throughout the globe. We’re not a Swiss or US bank with a boutique operation in other jurisdictions.”