Arbuthnot Latham named Best UK Private Bank for Client Service

What was the winning formula of your firm that explains why you won?

Client service is in our DNA. Each client has a dedicated relationship manager, typically a private banker, but depending on their needs they may also have an investment manager and a wealth planner. This consistent team provides continuity and is available face-to-face, on email, by phone or video call.
 

We pride ourselves on doing the simple things well – we’re proactive with clients and available if they want to speak to us. No chatbots, no call centres. Real people who listen and can then quickly give you help and support. Once we understand their needs, we work collaboratively and bring in our specialist colleagues at the right time to deliver solutions swiftly.

As a full-service bank across wealth management, private banking, and commercial banking we can help manage your day-to-day finances, protect, and grow your wealth, support your business, and ensure your wealth leaves a legacy for future generations. And all under one roof, removing complexity and giving clients time back to focus on what really matters to them.

Our relationship-led approach, coupled with the desire to deliver for clients has led to enviable net promoter scores from happy clients who then become our key advocates. This success has supported a 70% growth in client balances over the past 5 years, while we continue to delight and exceed our clients’ expectations.

What are you going to do to remain competitive and stay ahead?

It’s important that we stay relentlessly focused on client service and relationship building so we can continue to deliver the basics brilliantly, while ensuring we really understand our clients and their families and help them achieve their goals with our expert advice.
 

What sort of challenges did you surmount to reach this level and how have you been able to succeed in such fast-moving circumstances?

Staying focused on the client over the last few years has been challenging and it is easy for all firms to be inward looking. This has been a constant challenge over recent years with Covid-19 lockdown and the economic environment changing, but I think we have supported our relationship managers to stay focused on the client.

The most important aspect of relationship management is to spend time with our clients. It can, though, be easy for other internal priorities to distract us from this. This is something we are very mindful of. But given our client satisfaction scores and growth in client balances, we appear to be getting this right (more often than not) and heading in the right direction.

Please describe how your colleagues made a difference?

We are proud to have consistently high colleague satisfaction scores and we have recently also been recognised as a 5-star employer by employee engagement platform WorkBuzz, demonstrating that we’re considered a great place to work.

The Arbuthnot Latham difference is having colleagues who take the time to really understand their clients’ needs, deliver on promises and are focused on how we can help and support clients. This builds trust with clients looking to us to help them achieve their goals, as well as giving them financial peace of mind.