Florida-based Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust has appointed its first banker to be permanently based in Aspen, in the hope of growing its business through its clients who spend time in the Colorado mountaintop resort, Miami Today reports.

Aaron Pearlman, who was most recently Aspen president for American National Bank, is to perform wide-ranging activities in his new role, as in addition to expertise in asset and wealth management and trusts, he also has commercial and residential lending experience, the publication said. His main focus, however, will be leveraging the bank’s existing client base to open up new opportunities with Aspen’s affluent community.

Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust already has significant links to Aspen and has been doing business in the area for over ten years. The bank also estimates that 7-10 per cent of its clients have some tie to Aspen and 5 per cent of its loan book is secured by Aspen real estate, the report said.

Gibraltar’s chief executive, Steven Hayworth, is reported to have said that said the bank hopes to become a major player in Aspen wealth management over time. "There's not another private bank in Aspen, Colorado… You have the big firms, a couple of community banks, but no boutique private bank," he said.

In discussing his bank’s tactics for garnering new business in Aspen, Mr Hayworth said the best way to bring in new clients was as mortgage customers.

"What we find is a majority of our clients, north of 60 per cent, were originally introduced to our company because of a residential mortgage need," he said. "When someone comes to you with a need for a secondary or primary home and they complete their financial statement, it gives you picture of their level of affluence" and that "will give us the opportunity to do additional business with these folks," he is quoted as having said.