Bank of Ireland private banking ready for rivals

By Paul Hoskins

GENEVA (Reuters) - Bank of Ireland (BKIR.I: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sees plenty of room for new entrants in the fast-growing Irish wealth management market given vast amounts of capital tied up in fixed assets, it's private banking chief said on Monday.

Established players in the rarefied world of wealth management will have to adapt, however, if they are to access new money held by the swelling ranks of Irish millionaires, Mark Cunningham, Managing Director of Bank of Ireland Private Banking, said at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

"HSBC have come in, Barclays, RBS, Goldmans and Deutsche are in and the two Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are looking to come in, but I suppose there's two problems for banks coming into the market," Cunningham said.

Newcomers may struggle to understand a market where there was no wealth in Ireland 10 years ago and where many have made their fortunes themselves. These clients want to continue growing their wealth and have very strong ideas about how it should be done.

"It is really very, very new money and unlike other countries ... Ireland is still very much in the wealth creation phase, as opposed wealth preservation," Cunningham said.

"When you're dealing with first-generation wealth, they're people who have made the money themselves and actually think they know what they want to invest in to make money."

Cunningham said the other stumbling block for new entrants would be finding staff in Ireland's tight labor market.

"There's a huge shortage of qualified people. Let's say there's a 1,000 professionals needed, well there's probably only three or four hundred in the market," he said.  Continued...