SocGen is building its private banking team in the Middle East

Societe Generale is the latest international bank to make a significant push to bolster its Middle East private banking operation in a sign that wealth management recruitment is beginning to pick up again.

The French bank has made four senior appointments for its private banking business in the MENA region. This is welcome news – after a sustained period of expansion for a number of international players in the Middle East, wealth management recruitment has shown signs of slowing in recent months.

Eddy Abramo, currently CEO and commercial director at SG Private Banking in the Middle East, has been named global market manager for clients in the region. This means he will coordinate the global teams targeting Middle Eastern clients across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Geneva, London, Luxembourg and Monaco. Jean-Paul Rame has taken the same position, but for the Africa market.

Nicolas Métivier has been appointed head of SocGen’s representative office in Abu Dhabi, while Gonzague de Cerval is the new head of the MENA desk in Luxembourg.

Demand for wealth managers in the Middle East has remained relatively strong, insist headhunters, as long as you’re focused on the ultra-high-net-worth market. However, after a period of sustained expansion, new hires were few and far between during the summer.

In the past couple of months, however, this has started to change. Barclays named Wassim Alameddine as director, private banker for its wealth and investment management division in MENA in October and, as the firm’s managing director told us, is likely to continue to hire going into next year.

Coutts, meanwhile, has hired 21 people in the Middle East this year and moved into a larger office at the end of October to accommodate the new team. In Bahrain, meanwhile, Swiss bank Banca dell Svizzera Italiana has now upgraded its representative licence to offer more asset management services in the kingdom.