Macquarie’s Wealth Management division to focus its private client business on the high net-worth segment

Macquarie Group’s Banking and Financial Services group (BFS) today announced it would bring together its private bank and private wealth businesses and concentrate its growth strategy on high net-worth clients.

This does not change BFS’ strategy to continue to grow its retail banking activities through offering home lending, deposit and credit card solutions for all consumer clients.

The high net-worth client segment presents significant opportunities for growth. Australia ranks inside the top 10 countries globally for high net-worth individuals, with more than 1.2 million adults with wealth of $A1.3 million or more¹. High net-worth is a segment that has grown by 7.4 per cent, or approximately 80,000 adults, since 2011.

High net-worth clients are the exclusive focus of Macquarie’s private bank, and also comprise a substantial proportion of its private wealth business.

Macquarie’s Head of Wealth Management, Bill Marynissen, said: “We are striving to create a comprehensive and tailored wealth and banking offering for our clients that can take them from the wealth accumulation stage of their lives, through to retirement. Concentrating on one client segment enables us to better deliver on this commitment.

“Focusing on attracting high net-worth clients is a logical evolution of our private client business and we believe it is a space in which we can be a market leader. We have carefully assessed growth opportunities in the high net-worth segment against the strong fundamentals of our business. These include a deep understanding of the high net-worth segment, our wealth and banking expertise and suite of solutions, and the capacity to build on our existing digital capabilities.”

The decision to concentrate the focus of the combined private bank and private wealth businesses to high net-worth clients impacts a number of advisers. Macquarie is supporting these advisers in a number of ways, including by facilitating discussions with other firms and assisting with their transition.

1. Credit Suisse Research Institute: Global Wealth Databook 2017. $US amount converted at November 2017 exchange rate of $A = $US0.76