Banco Santander, the Spain-based private bank, has decided to merge its wealth management and private banking businesses, as part of reorganization of parts of units hit by global financial crisis. Javier Marin, chief of global private banking, will lead the new division. Joan David Grima, the current head of wealth management, will take early retirement.
Reportedly, last year, the bank was hit with withdrawals after clients lost money on investments made by Santander’s hedge fund unit in funds run by Bernard Madoff. Later, clients were concerned, when the bank freezed withdrawals from a Spanish real esate fund after it was hit by an avalanche of redemptions.
Both the hedge fund unit and the real estate fund were part of the Santander Asset Management. The private banking business of Santander includes Banif in Spain, Cater Allen, James Hay, Abbey Sharedealing and Abbey International in the UK. Earlier, the bank tried to sell the asset management unit along with its insurance business, but had to shelve the plan as it did not find a buyer.
