Prime Banking Services

In the world of Finance, more specifically in the Banking industry, the services provided are inserted in a wide range of choices, accounts, investments, risks and so on, so it is essential to know what we’re getting into or get to know what exactly do we need from the bank. Banks serve as intermediaries in finance be it as currency exchangers, loan providers, investment advisors, asset management, and others. Today, a bank is much more than a lender and as the world gets more and more interconnected, the more complex financial services are.

A bank’s client can be a retail customer who just seeks a deposit account for his daily operations like paying rent, water and electricity bills; but also, the corporate clients who seek financing for their projects and business activities, the institutional clients that want to secure their wealth as pension funds or government funds, and even the Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW) individuals who desire a more catering style bank that offers all-in-one services for their wealth storage, management, advisory, tax compliance and others.

Private Banking

High and Ultra High Net Worth individuals have special needs that usually retail clients don’t have as to planning their investments, tax and financial advisory, insurance, and others. These are the individuals who personally own above a hundred thousand and a million dollars, respectively. Other name to these services can be Wealth Management, and there are banks that specialize in it like Deusche Bank (DBK.DE), JPMorgan Chase (JPM.NYSE) or Credit Suisse (CSGN.SW).

The greatest advantage this services provides is the privacy in handling the information about the client’s positions and needs, and serving a customized and unique relationship, but also a single place to deal with the different questions that arise with managing investments, like accounting, tax compliance, insurance of all kinds, deposits and savings accounts, and others.

Investment Banking

Some companies have bigger and more complex needs as when they sign their IPO (Initial Public Offering), when they execute an operation of M&A (Merger and Acquisition, as to when two or more companies fuse themselves to create a new company how one absorbs the other(s)) or when they just need to get credibility on their share or bond issuing. Investment banks act as intermediaries between businesses and investors, creating the market by buying and selling as needed.

Their main task is to evaluate companies and business and acess their true value and if the current price is over or undervalued, advising the investors to buy or to sell in the “right” time. As for businesses, their work is important to get recognition in one’s stock or bond as good or bad for investment. Usually investment banks also aid in the filling of important documentation to legal and financial authorities, just like the New York Stock Exchange or the Securities and Exchange Comission.

Asset Management

While Investment Banking focus on creating a market for securities, Asset Management, which is in many times also provided by investment banks, has a focus on growing their client’s portfolios and controlling for the existent risk of the markets. It’s a service provided to different clients in different levels os management, be it to UHNW individuals, investment funds, governments, ONG, and others, with the intent to pass the stressful side of managing investments, assets and the liabilities connected to them, from the investor so he can just focus on keep investing.

Prime Brokerage

This service is often related to hedge funds who have special needs in terms of trading securities and managing positions in different investments and in many times in contrary directions (long/short). It may include, among others, the lending of securities by the investment bank and special research by market analysts. It’s an advantage because it centralizes the client’s securities investment and trading needs, all in one place.