French firm boosts Dutch presence, the global struggle for talent rages on. BNP Paribas' Private Bank plans to up its standing in the Netherlands' wealth-management space. The Paris-based bank will pay about $93 million for a 35% stake in the corporate parent of Amsterdam-based Bank Insinger de Beaufort, and combine the businesses of its Dutch private-banking subsidiary Nachenius Tjeenk with Insinger de Beaufort.

When the deal is done early next year, the new group will mange more than $16 billion in client assets, "which will position it at the forefront of the wealth management industry in its target markets" -- meaning the Netherlands and London, where Nachenius Tjeenk has a private-banking office -- according to a BNP Paribas press release.

Zeer bezig

BNP Paribas Private Bank chief Francois Debiesse says his firm's "strategic partnership" with Insinger de Beaufort "will enable us to create a highly visible Anglo-Dutch wealth-management specialist benefiting from the backing of a global financial group. By combining our strengths, and our highly complementary business models, I believe that we can build up a driving force in the buoyant Dutch domestic market and UK offshore market and further strengthen our competitive position in these markets."

Earlier this month -- in a move imposed on it by European Union regulators -- Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance firm Fortis agreed to sell the Dutch commercial- and private-banking parts of ABN Amro to Deutsche Bank for about $1.1 billion.

And about five weeks ago, Zurich-based UBS agreed to buy Amsterdam-based wealth-management boutique VermogensGroep.

Merrill Lynch is piling into the Dutch wealth-management market as well, having just hired three ex-Fortis private bankers and an advisor from the Dutch arm of Brussels-based Bank Degroof.

Bear Stearns

And that's not the only team of wealth managers Merrill has pulled in lately. In a more recent move, the U.S. brokerage hired a trio of high-profile European wealth managers from JPMorgan's Bear Stearns.

The team is based in London and Monaco, its members Mazy Moghadam, Rajiv Gupta and Chris Pinsent report to Nick Tucker, market leader for Merrill's Private Wealth Management business in the U.K. and Ireland, and Monaco market head Frederic Hilal.

"We are delighted to welcome Mazy and his team to Merrill Lynch," Tucker told Citywire last week. "They have had impressive success at Bear Stearns, where his group grew to be the firm's largest producers."

This past March the U.S. Federal Reserve frog marched Bear Stearns -- which as racked by rumors of its inability to secure enough liquid capital to mollify nervous investors -- into the arms of JPMorgan.

Latin liftout

Speaking of international liftouts, Morgan Stanley has taken a four-member team of Latin America private-client specialists out of Citigroup's Smith Barney. Brokers Ruben Lerner and Manuel Uranga and sales assistants Dolores Alcaide-Mendez and Jennifer Ramos are based in New York but serve Venezuelan clients.

The team reports to Fabian Onetti, sales manager for of Morgan Stanley's Latin America-International office.

"Morgan Stanley has a significant footprint in this region and this team is a valued addition that brings a breadth of knowledge that will further support our efforts in this market," says Ernesto de la Fe, head of Morgan Stanley's Latin American private-client business.

Since De la Fe joined Morgan Stanley from Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2006, Morgan Stanley has plucked several U.S.-based Latin American teams from its rivals, including a 10-member team from Goldman Sachs, and a five-member team from Lehman.

UBS and the long run

"[Clients] are taking a much more conservative allocation, decreasing their focus to equities," Raoul Weil, chairman of UBS' global wealth-managment business, told the Straits Times. "But they are not putting on the brakes."

UBS, which has seen an exodus of private clients in the wake of losses related to the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis, is sticking to its expansion plans.

In July it added wealth-management offices in Australia and Japan and over the past year it has installed six new offices in China.

"In the wealth management business, you have to take a very long-term perspective," said Weil. "We are investing for the next decade or so."

Religare Macquarie

Mumbai-based Religare Macquarie Wealth Management, a new Indian joint venture between Australia's Macquarie Bank and New Delhi-based Religare Enterprises, has its first CEO in former Deutsche Bank executive Vikas Agnihotri.

India led the world in high-net-worth population growth last year, adding 23,000 new millionaires for a total of 123,000; a 23% gain, according to the latest World Wealth Report by Capgemini and Merrill.

Agnihotri had been director of Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank's private- and business-banking operations in India. He reports to Religare Macquarie's six-member board.

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