Private banking survey 2008: When the ultra-wealthy bump into the sub-prime

Private banks attached to investment banks have benefited from the access to balance sheet and innovative products that the relationship provides. But with Wall Street suffering dramatic losses as a result of sub-prime mortgage exposure, will that relationship be the private banks’ downfall? Helen Avery reports.

The world’s best private banks: Private banking survey results index

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WHEN UBS ANNOUNCED that it would be selling a stake to investors in Singapore and the Middle East in December, it highlighted the vulnerability of private banks that have investment banking businesses attached to them. As UBS’s chief executive, Marcel Rohner, put it during the announcement: “An investment bank can and will incur losses.

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