Private banks want a more feminine touch in wealth management

Private banks are taking a fresh approach to recruitment by targeting women as wealth managers, according to a recent report by market researcher Datamonitor.

The report found that increasingly more women held leading positions at the biggest private banks and wealth management divisions - including Merrill Lynch Trust, JPMorgan Private Bank and Citigroup Asset Management.

Major factors behind the influx of women into the private wealth management industry ranged from an increased demand for their skills and services and the growing need for banks to demonstrate equal opportunities policies, to a rising awareness that women bring valuable skills to private banking.

While it is often assumed that one of the primary drivers for attempting to attract women to private banking is that women clients prefer women bankers, the report showed there was no evidence to support this.

Most women bankers in the report said they had had no experience of women clients asking specifically for a woman banker when they came to the bank.

'[The influx of women into the private wealth management industry] is very much linked to the trend of women growing as clients in private banking,' said the report's author, Datamonitor analyst Lauren McAughtry.