LGT Bank was confirmed yesterday as the buyer of ABN Amro’s Asian wealth management business but there is a lot of hard work to come, say sources, pointing to cultural differences between the firms.
The central motivation behind the merger and the consolidation trend in private banking generally is clear the need for economies of scale. Both LGT, with $25 billion in Asian assets under management, and ABN Amro, with $20 billion, were seen as lacking the size necessary to sustain their regional businesses.
A combined entity with $45 billion in AUM and 200-odd relationship managers is a more viable proposition....