Nedbank Private Wealth, the multi-award-winning private bank and wealth manager, has once again announced strong growth in new business flows and profits, this time for the financial year ending 2016.
Growth in profit after tax was up 52% on the prior year in its wealth division, although this was distorted by a one-off extraordinary item in 2016. Nevertheless, when this is factored out, the underlying business growth still exceeded 20% for the third consecutive year.
Excluding the extraordinary item, income was up over 16% as a result of steady growth in lending and strong flows in deposits, assets under management and assets under administration. This has created a year-on-year increase of 15% on Nedbank Private Wealth’s fully integrated wealth management platform “Focus”, which now houses client wealth totalling ?3.36 billion as at the December 2016 financial year end.
On a consolidated basis, including its trust division, the numbers are equally impressive revealing a 12.9% return on capital, which in a near zero interest rate environment is particularly noteworthy.
Nedbank Private Wealth has recently been awarded the coveted title of Private Bank of the Year 2017 at the City of London Wealth Management Awards. This is the third year running that Nedbank Private Wealth has won this prestigious UK private banking award.
Greg Horton, Executive Head Nedbank Private Wealth - International, said: “I see the key drivers for growth as being the business’s consistent profile of success and its excellent reputation for integrity and exemplary client service. Our principal aim has remained unchanged in over two decades, to serve our clients better than any other financial services organisation. We have amassed over 70 national and international awards over this time for our product range, client service and employee engagement levels, all evidencing the fact we have never lost sight of this objective.”
Horton continued: “We anticipate further solid growth during 2017 as the business continues to see the benefits from a growing footprint across our various geographical locations, all of which are now highly profitable in their own right.
“We are prioritising our technology solutions and over the next four years, we have an exciting programme of releases that will see our Focus service transition into a full multi-channel and omni-channel solution for our private clients and professional intermediaries.”
With the vast majority of business emanating from existing client and professional intermediary referrals, Horton also pointed to the results recently received from the business’s independently assessed client survey. This was undertaken last year by the UK’s leading customer survey specialist, The Leadership Factor, and in terms of its overall Client Satisfaction IndexTM, it places the business in the top 10 percent of the 1,100 businesses across the UK represented in the index. Particularly noteworthy was that in comparison to other companies in the Banks and Building Societies’ league table, Nedbank Private Wealth scored the highest mark on record for security and safety since the research company started benchmarking clients’ scores.
Horton explained: “Given this factor was ranked 9.8 out of 10 as the most important consideration for our clients, it is especially pleasing to see we were ranked so highly in this category.”
The business currently holds a record eight national and international accolades and, in addition to winning the Private Bank of the Year 2017 award, it has also recently been awarded a maximum 3-star accreditation (designated “extraordinary”) from Best Companies in the UK and achieved a place on The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For listing. It should therefore come as no surprise this business is really getting noticed.
The Telegraph Business Club recently released a documentary on the business for its “Secrets of Success” series. The series features successful businesses with interesting and individual stories to tell, which can offer inspiration to others. The independently produced documentary on Nedbank Private Wealth features on the Telegraph’s website and it is also available in Nedbank Private Wealth’s video gallery, at www.nedbankprivatewealth.com. This assisted in driving strong net new client account flows, which increased by over 30% in 2016, and Horton sings the praises of his team and also the business’s clients and professional intermediaries who continue to support and drive the high level of new business referrals.
Another impressive performance across the board and exciting times continue for this multi-award-winning business whose reputation as a top-rated private bank and wealth manager that focuses on applying sound business morals continues to grow.
Photo - Greg Horton, Executive Head Nedbank Private Wealth – International.
