BBVA dreams up ideas for private bank clients

By Jane Barrett

GENEVA (Reuters) - Private banking tends to have an aura of safe but dull, so BBVA (BBVA.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is offering young, newly rich Spanish entrepreneurs something different, from Mexican property to solar power.

BBVA has beefed up its private banking service to cater to hundreds of Spaniards who have shot into the multimillionaire ranks as the country's economy burgeoned over the past decade.

Because many of them are entrepreneurs who have made their own millions rather than inherited family treasures, investors are looking for more interesting opportunities than the portfolios private banks have traditionally offered, said Daniel de Fernando of BBVA.

"Spain has gone through a dramatic change in investment appetite," de Fernando, BBVA's head of asset management and private banking, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

"Investors are looking for innovative products. They're a bit bored with the financial markets or they became active in markets before 2000 and got hit twice and scared off," he said.

BBVA, Spain's second-largest bank, has used its increasing global reach to link up clients and contacts to create new projects.

For example, on a trip to Mexico, where BBVA owns the largest bank, Bancomer, De Fernando was intrigued by the story of how the real estate market was developing.

A trip with clients out to a building site led to a meeting with some private banking clients who guided BBVA in tailoring a product to suit their investment requirements, complete with currency hedging and diversification across the property spectrum.  Continued...