Julius Baer shifts focus from Monaco to Manchester as it seeks to target super-rich

‘There’s a lot of wealth creation outside the South East and we see Brexit still providing opportunities’

SWISS private bank Julius Baer is hoping to court some of the UK’S wealthiest individuals living outside London and the South East by opening hubs in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow.

The Zurich-based bank, which has seen a rush of new money from Asia, the Middle East and Monaco this year, is understood to have hired a number of bankers from Barclays to help it target more of the UK’S super-rich.

The timing of its UK expansion is notable, given that other financial institutions are looking to scale back in response to Brexit. But David Durlacher, the bank’s international boss, said he did not expect the vote to damage individual wealth.

“There’s limited competition of wealth managers able to approach these individuals,” he said.

“There’s a lot of [wealth] creation occurring outside of the South East and we see Brexit still providing opportunities.”

Two thirds of the UK’S wealth is held by individuals outside of London and the South East, the bank added.

The bank has not disclosed who will be leading the new offices, but a number of its hires are understood to have come from Barclays’ wealth management division.

Calum Brewster, Barclays’ Glasgowbased head of wealth management for the North, and Martin Cuthbert, the group’s Leeds-based regional director for the North, have both recently resigned.