Private banking is a term for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks to private individuals investing sizable assets. The term "private" refers to the customer service being rendered on a more personal basis than in mass-market retail banking, usually via dedicated bank advisers. It should not be confused with a private bank, which is simply a non-incorporated banking institution.

Historically private banking has been viewed as very exclusive, only catering for high net worth individuals with liquidity over $2 million, although it is now possible to open some private bank accounts with as little as $250,000 for private investors. An institution's private banking division will provide various services such as wealth management, savings, inheritance and tax planning for their clients. A high-level form of private banking (for the especially affluent) is often referred to as wealth management.

The word "private" also alludes to bank secrecy and minimizing taxes via careful allocation of assets. An offshore bank account may be used for this purpose.

Private bank rankings

According to Euromoney's annual Private bank and wealth management rankings, which consider assets under management, profitability, ratio of clients to relationship managers and services offered, global private banking assets under management are up over 128% year on year.Fact: date=September 2008

Best private bank for ultra high net worth ($30m+) 2008. This table displays results of one category of the Private banking awards.

Scale

According to Scorpio Partnership's Annual Private Banking Benchmark for 2006, the largest private banking division is at UBS AG, followed by Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, each of these institutions gathering more than $1 trillion in assets under management for private clients.

Private banking institutions showed an increase in profits and assets under management in 2006 following a period of slow growth by 3.8% in 2004.

Switzerland is a major location for private banking. Swiss banks hold an estimated 35% of the world's private and institutional offshore funds, or 4.6 trillion Swiss francs.

See also

• Bank secrecy
• Offshore bank
• Swiss bank
• List of economics topics
• List of finance topics