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Private banking is a term which covers both of the services which banks give to individuals usually with liquid wealth of above 1 million dollars, and also the division of that entity which does checking, savings, and loans for that clientele.
The word "private" in private banking is mostly a reference to minimizing taxes via careful allocation of assets. Offshore bank accounts can be used for this purpose. Also it alludes to private equity, which is essentially share ownership of a company not available for the general public to buy in a stock market. Private banking clients are usually given special opportunities to invest in these, along with special IPO opportunities. Originally however the use of the word "private", as in "private client" comes from the fact that originally these type of services were sold by major instutional and investment banks, who usually did not work with private individuals (instead normally working with public corporations).
Private banking usually combines trust services, investment services, banking services, and tax services.
The largest private bank is Union Bank of Switzerland.
The most profitable private bank is the private banking division of Merrill Lynch.
Scale
As of 2000, the amount on deposit with private banks in the world was about US$13 trillion. To put that in perpective, the amount of assets that the largest United States bank has was about $1.3 trillion, and the total amount of printed cash in the United States at the time was $600 billion (see money supply), while US household financial assets were $30 trillion ([1]).
Switzerland is the major location of private banking. As of 2003, it has about 2 trillion in assets under management, which is about one third of all offshore money.
See also