Hamburg-headquartered investment banking group Berenberg has closed its UK-based private client operation, it confirmed to International Adviser.
Media reports said that Berenberg was shutting down its UK private bank, but the group said that this never existed and it is its wealth management department in the UK that is being closed.
According to the group, approximately 10 employees have been affected by the decision.
A spokesperson for Berenberg told IA: “The UK private client business was small, accounting less than 5% of our wealth and asset management operations globally. In an environment of rising operating costs and regulatory complexity, we concluded this business was unlikely to achieve sufficient scale.
“We have not made any staff reductions in our German-based wealth management operations, which continue to perform strongly.”
The webpage dedicated to its former UK wealth management and asset management arm has also been taken down.
In total, Berenberg employs 450 people in the UK primarily in investment banking and 1,700 people worldwide.
