A balance sheet standing behind the private client

A private bank is paid to hold and to lend. It is a careful business and it suits many families. What it cannot do is put its own capital next to the family in the same position, because the capital is not there to be put.

Conventional: A conventional private bank
IGUAKO: IGUAKO Private Wealth

Aspect	A conventional private bank	IGUAKO Private Wealth
Balance sheet	The bank intermediates. Client assets sit on a platform and the bank earns a margin on them.	US$610 million of the capital of the institution is invested alongside the mandates it holds.
What is on the shelf	Funds and structured products, most of them manufactured by other firms and distributed here.	Positions the institution originates itself, held on the terms the institution itself takes.
When the client sees a transaction	After it has been syndicated to institutions and packaged for distribution.	When the institution takes it, at the same price and with the same information.
Relationships per banker	A relationship manager typically covers between sixty and one hundred and twenty households.	61 family relationships across the division, each with a named principal and a named deputy.
Discretion	Usually discretionary, exercised inside a model portfolio and a house asset allocation.	Discretionary or advisory, written into the mandate, with a right to require a human decision.
Reporting	Quarterly statements produced by the custody platform, in the format of that platform.	A quarterly written report from the principal, the Client Terminal and an annual valuation.

Private Wealth and UHNW works the other way round. The institution originates for its own account first, and the mandates it manages take the same positions on the same terms. Custody is arranged with independent counterparties, so the two roles never merge.