Merrill Lynch’s Capital Markets Bank operation in the Treasury Buildings in Dublin’s Grand Canal Street will soon be operating side by side with a new Merrill business, this time targeting high net worth private individuals in Ireland. A fully fledged private banking operation is being established, with a minimum client account size of $1 million.
Merrill Lynch’s Irish private client team will focus on servicing ‘High Net Worth’ and ‘Ultra High Net Worth’ ($30 million account individuals), providing ‘individually tailored investment management and private banking services’.
The team of six includes four relationship managers, all of whom are Irish.
Speaking to Finance at the launch of the new bank in Dublin, Merrill’s chairman emeritus, Dan Tully, and founder of the bank’s operations in Ireland, said that the strong relationship approach of the organisation lay at the heart of its success in recent times - an evidenced by a compounded annual earnings increase of over 40 per cent during the past decade.
The minimum amount needed to open a private banking account is $1 million. O’Flannagain, first vice president in the private client operation in Dublin, told Finance that the service would deliver an tailor-made institutional type service, including institutional pricing, to high net-worth individuals. He added that the maximum number of clients that each member of the team would service would be between 40 - 50. Merrill also did not see themselves as competing with the existing stockbroking firms and private banks; rather as complementing them. Merrill executives said that Merrill would work with them, for example in the mortgages area.
John Maitland, managing director of Merrill Lynch’s International Private Client Group in the United Kingdom & Ireland emphasised the bespoke nature of the operation and said that Merrill would offer a global investment opportunities service.
Merrill Lynch has had a base of operation in Dublin since 1995 when it established Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Bank Limited. Today Merrill Lynch employs 170 people in its Dublin operations, having hired 67 people alone in 2000. |
