Some also acknowledge that, although they may have more corporate clients in absolute terms, in terms of the amount of business transacted the most active clients – and therefore the most profitable – are money managers. For example, at one bank, the respondent states that corporates represent more than 65% of the client base but less than 40% of the revenue.
“The corporates [are still] the largest proportion but the asset manager business is the most rapidly growing segment,” says Håkan Larsson, head of FX and emerging markets at Svenska Handelsbanken.
At Standard Chartered, the dynamic is the same but the players are slightly different. Mr Drammeh says that although corporates still dominate the bank’s volumes, he has “recently seen a shift in relative importance towards the bank sector”, which he foresees will continue.
Other banks have implemented a deliberate strategy to alter the client balance. Traditionally known as a strong corporate bank, RBS’s desire to compete on a global stage has led to a marked increase in its financial institutions-related business. “This has been achieved by price, product and service up-tiering across all time zones,” says Mr Haws.
