Hunt for banking talent ups pay

By Tom Burroughes

GENEVA (Reuters) - The battle for talent in Europe's private banks is driving up pay to seven-figure sums, prompting banks to boost training to ease a shortage of people who can cater to the rich, financial industry figures said.

"We see that because of high value creation, compensation will become like that for investment bankers whose value creation is very high," Bernard Coucke, head of Europe and deputy chief executive officer of ING Private Banking, told a Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

A decade ago it was more common for private banking salaries to be no different to those at retail banks. But that is now changing with bankers involved in wealth management commanding much higher salaries.

Pay packages, including bonuses, are now measured in six- and even seven-figure amounts, Sebastian Dovey, founding director and managing partner at Scorpio Partnership, a research and consultancy company, told the summit.

"That is not just in places like London but also in the Asia market," he said.

After a lean period following the end of the 1990s bull market in stocks, the fortunes of private banks have improved, boosting demand for staff in this area of finance.

Private banks, often overshadowed by big retail banks and often domiciled in locations like Switzerland, have become a hot business area because the ranks of the rich are growing.

Companies such as Swiss group UBS AG (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have snapped up small banking groups in recent years to tap this potentially large and fast-growing market.  Continued...