Public relations firm Carte Blanche tackles German market from Frankfurt office. Carte Blanche, a communications and marketing firm that works exclusively with wealth advisors and institutional asset managers, has opened an office in Frankfurt in a bid to strengthen its presence in German-speaking Europe.

"Germany is the largest European economy and its robustness has been underlined most recently by the extraordinary growth in business confidence," says Carte Blanche's founder and managing director Zoë Couper. "From a financial services perspective, the German wealth management industry in particular offers numerous opportunities as it matures."

Suisse connection

With about 98 million native speakers, German is the world's tenth most widely spoken language, according to the web-based encyclopedia MSN Encarta. More to the point, Germany is home to around 800,000 U.S.-dollar millionaires, according to Capgemini's latest World Wealth Report -- and of course Austria and Switzerland (about 64% of whose population calls German its mother tongue) also have high-net-worth individuals and families.

Carte Blanche's Frankfurt office will be headed by Petra Riedel, former head of marketing for Credit Suisse Private Banking in Germany.

"I am thrilled to be taking up this challenge with such a unique, young company with such a clear specialization in this growing sector," says Riedel. "I am keen to build upon Carte Blanche's innovative acquisition programs such as those for the next generation and ultra-high-net-worth-client groups in the region, particularly as institutions begin to reinvest in marketing and communications given the renewed economic strength."

The Credit Suisse connection with Carte Blanche goes beyond Frankfurt. Couper, who is based in London, is another marketing veteran of the Zurich-based bank -- as is Liz Nickles, who handles Carte Blanche's North American business from the firm's New York office.

Carte Blanche's clients have included Credit Suisse, U.S. Trust, SunTrust Banks' multifamily office affiliate Asset Management Advisors, Julius Baer and Close Brothers. The firm has been in business for about a year. -FWR

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