Andbank, an Andorran private bank with US$26 billion under management, is joining the rush to grab market share among wealthy Brazilians living in Miami.
The micro-state’s largest bank has hired seven people for its Latin America private-banking business in Miami this year, bringing the total to 22, and could add as many as eight more by the end of the year, Andbank managing director and head of Americas Carlos Moreno de Tejada said in an interview in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“We’re interviewing at least one banker or independent financial adviser a week,” Tejada said. “Competition for hiring in Miami is fierce and obtaining a visa is becoming a serious difficulty.”
Miami is a destination of choice for many Brazilians given its proximity to Latin America, cultural identity and similar climate.
Brazilian financial institutions including Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Grupo BTG Pactual, XP Investimentos CCTVM SA and Banco Bradesco SA already have offices there.
A tax-amnesty program has freed up as much as US$52 billion in assets to invest as many Brazilians brought their now legalized fortunes from fiscal havens to the South Florida city.
Andbank opened its Miami brokerage unit three years ago, aiming at clients with at least US$1 million to invest.
“The market is tough, but we’ve had exponential growth,” said Carlos Gribel, head of fixed income at Andbank’s Miami brokerage.
The unit manages about US$800 million, including assets in its broker-dealer and investment-advisory business.
Since October last year, after the amnesty program, there was a big inflow of money coming from Swiss banks to the US, where private banking rates are “much cheaper,” he said.
Andbank is also hoping to expand its business in Brazil.
The local unit plans to hire three more people this year, boosting headcount to 17. It is also in advanced talks for possible acquisitions of local family offices, said Leonardo Marques Hojaij, the company’s private-banking superintendent in Brazil.
“There are several mid-size family offices that have between 500 million reais and 1 billion reais (US$157 million and US$314 million) under management that struggle to run independently, but that could be relevant to us,” Hojaij said, adding that a deal might be reached by the end of the year.
Andbank is only looking into deals that allow it to be a majority shareholder, Tejada added.
Andbank’s plans follow UBS Group AG’s agreement to purchase a majority stake in Consenso Investimentos Ltd, Brazil’s biggest independent multi-family office, becoming the latest Swiss bank to bet on the industry’s growth.
Total assets under management in the private-banking industry in Brazil increased almost 17 percent last year, to 831.6 billions reais, according to data from Anbima, the capital-markets association.
This year, a large influx of initial public offerings and mergers should add to that growth.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS