Private Banking

The course deals with the topic of the role of financial institutions in the market for asset management services, with special emphasis on the business area known as private banking. This term traditionally identifies the supply of portfolio management and other services (both of financial and non-financial nature) to individual customers belonging to the affluent segment. The main focus of the course is on the content of the service, on the nature and management problems of the suppliers and on the competitive structure of the market. In other words, emphasis is placed more on the strategic and organizational issues of providing private banking services rather than on the techniques and models for managing a portfolio of securities.
Teaching methods are a mixture of traditional lectures, case discussions and encounters with experts working in private banking.

Programme

1. The market for private banking services
a. Definition of the business area
b. Customers
c. Products and services
d. Segmentation criteria

2. The geographical dimension of the market
a. Competition between financial centers
b. The issue of taxes and regulation
c. The role of Lugano and Switzerland in the international private banking market

3. The supply of private banking services
a. The main suppliers
b. Managerial problems of financial institutions active in the private banking market
c. Strategic and organizational choices of private bankers (production, distribution, marketing, impact of technology, ...)

Textbooks

Notes and articles distributed in class.