In a recent blogpost with Jean-Christophe Pernollet of PwC we already talked about PwC’s widely read Global Private Banking/Wealth Management Survey. In today’s interview we talked to Bruce Weatherill, head of PwC’s high profile private banking practice about some of the major challenges the private banking industry is currently facing. Bruce has successfully built and led the practice before deciding to leave the firm this year to take on a fresh challenge in a senior management position.

In the podcast Bruce Weatherill particularly stresses the industry’s transformation towards a more client centric focus rather than transactional focus. He mentions two obstacles to this transformation. On the one hand he highlights the need to sort out front office infrastructure and process issues:

It’s quite odd in an industry which prides itself on knowledge of the client, actually very little of that client information is automated and the services around the front office are often relatively inefficient.

On the other hand he refers to the lack of sufficient client relationship managers in terms of numbers and quality and the insufficient professionalism when it comes to people issues.

It is telling that somewhat less than 50% of private banks have a dedicated HR director on their boards despite the fact that over 50% of the cost of a private bank are staff. Becoming far more professional about how you deal with the people aspects and talent management is absolutely critical.

Listen to the full podcast with Bruce Weatherill:

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