Bluerating | April 2025
In recent times, most banks and financial advisor networks seem to have concentrated their efforts on private clients, i.e. with financial assets exceeding one million euros.
This is certainly an important type of client, growing, but also very demanding and absorbing a lot of resources in terms of offerings and contacts – private bankers – who are increasingly competent and prepared.
In Italy, however, few people know that half of the savings are in the hands of affluent clients (with financial assets between 200K and 500K Euros), or about 2,000 billion euros out of a total of 4,000, who continue to save 10% of their income, have an average age of between 55 and 65, are 23% entrepreneurs, 45% employees and 32% pensioners.
Affluent customers have a significant overall wealth, consisting of significant liquidity in current accounts (which weighs over a third), financial investments – heavily weighted towards the bond component – and many properties.
The affluent segment is a customer segment that is served in a suboptimal way by most traditional banks, because it is more composite than private and mass market customers.
So much so that financial advisor networks, at least the most dynamic and digital ones, are flocking to affluent clients who cannot believe they can have an efficient bank with a dedicated advisor.
Traditional banks have noticed this and, in fact, are closing ranks on three fronts, with: a) an offer dedicated to affluent clients, which includes savings management, protection, access to credit, and real estate consultancy; b) the valorization of the figure of the bank manager dedicated to this segment of customers; c) an ad hoc and more attractive incentive system for these managers.
Banks have well understood that the role and skills of bank managers are and will be increasingly crucial in managing, build customer loyalty and retaining affluent clients who, on the contrary, would flock end asset to financial advisor networks.
In fact, almost all banks are investing in the growth of the manager dedicated to this segment, the true pivot in the relationship with affluent clients, formalizing their role and assigning them a selected portfolio. Intesa Sanpaolo with the Exclusive and UniCredit with the First managers have led the way, but they are closely followed by BPER, Banco BPM, BNL BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Credem and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, whose network is one of the strengths recognized by the market.
Banks have also realized that to make the action of affluent managers even more effective, they need to have the ability to operate off-site: Banco BPM will register all premium managers with the OCF (Organismo dell’albo dei Consulenti Finanziari), but it will not be the only one and certainly not the first. Intesa Sanpaolo introduced the mixed or “minotaur” contract (employee-agent) way back in 2017.
In short, giving a bank manager the license to operate off-site with adequate training and all the support is a bit like pushing him to leave his comfort zone, especially in view of the progressive closure of branches.
The hunt for the affluent customer is therefore open: we will see whether the winners will be the most experienced financial advisors or the bank managers provided they are equipped – like James Bond agent 007 – with a license to… go out.
Nicola Ronchetti