Monday 28 January 2008

Russian wealth manager head leaves Deutsche Bank

Financial News

Jason Corcoran in Moscow
28 January 2008


Claus Korner, head of Deutsche Bank’s wealth management business in Russia, has left for Icelandic banking group Glitnir.

Korner, head of Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management since 2004, has been working in Russia and eastern European private banking and asset management since 1992.

He was a pioneer at Deutsche in attracting clients worth more than $1bn and proving wealthy Russians are prepared to invest their money onshore. Private banking group UBS and Credit Suisse have followed in Deutsche’s wake and set up operations in Moscow.

Other senior Deutsche staff in Moscow have resigned in the past year as the market for top Moscow bankers has become more competitive.

Russian rainmaker Nick Jordan left for Lehman Brothers and his investment banking co-head Ilya Sherbovich is leaving soon to start a boutique.

Glitnir, which is setting up corporate finance, brokerage and asset management in Moscow, is recruiting eight sales and marketing staff to its wealth management team, in addition to its four advisers.

Erkin Nusurov, former managing director for investments at Austria’s Raiffeisen Asset Management, has also joined as chief investment officer.

Raimo Valo, head of investment management for Russia, said Glitnir’s threshold for wealth clients will be about a third of its rivals.

Glitnir last year acquired Finland’s FIM Asset Management, which has a record of investing in Russia since 1997.

The group last year launched three rouble-denominated mutual funds – FIM Russian Equities, FIM Russian Portfolio and FIM Russian Bonds – which closely match other funds that invest in Russia.

Glitnir’s large and small-cap Russian funds have more than €500m ($733.79m) under management. As the Nordic region’s third-largest broker, Glitnir manages more than €8.5bn in assets under management in 46 funds.

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