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Quintet is a group of seven different private banks, soon to be eight if the Swiss regulator agrees. Is that efficient?

Of course, that is something we think very hard about – with this idea of partnership and collaboration in mind. You don’t really want a system where companies operate in loose affiliation: you want to get everything together. There are organizational things that you can think about, but we're not yet ready to talk about that.

When do you expect the acquisition of Bank am Bellevue in Switzerland to close?

We expect that we will close this quarter, subject to regulatory approval.

How does Switzerland fit into the KBL or now Quintet story?

The Swiss leg to the Quintet story is very important because we need to expand beyond our existing footprint. We plan to build out the Swiss private bank. The market here in Switzerland is interesting.

«Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to expand»

We also have ambitions to go into faster-growing markets in other parts of the world like Latin America, the Middle East, certain parts of Africa, and we’re also thinking about Asia.

How quickly will that happen?

We cannot aggressively expand everywhere at the same time. We want to take an organized, methodical approach. We need to build the necessary competencies, which is not just hiring private bankers.

«Hopefully we can take part in industry consolidation – at some point again»

It's about building a proper strategy and being very targeted in terms of the markets that we approach and having the right resources from a compliance and cross-border perspective. This is not something that's going to happen from one day to the next.

Are you currently looking at other acquisitions, either in Switzerland or elsewhere?

There are lots of things coming across our desks that we look at, that we think about how they might fit into what we want to do. And I'm very hopeful that we can participate in the consolidation process again at some point. But I want to emphasize that we’re building this business client by client, office by office, day by day.

 Jakob Stott is the head of private banking at Quintet, the new brand name for KBL European Private Bankers. The Luxembourg-based group encompasses brands including Merck Finck, a 149-year-old loss-making German bank, and regional British wealth manager Brown Shipley. Along with Juerg Zeltner, Stott took a «significant» financial stake as part of a revival of the wealth manager. The 64-year-old Danish banker worked closely with Zeltner at UBS until 2018. He spent 28 years at J.P. Morgan prior to joining UBS in 2010.