We believe that Serbia is a good market for the development of private banking, due to several positive factors … the population is highly educated and has a good understanding of financial instruments. In our opinion, the economy will continue recovering and will grow in the future as well, so our view is that we are able to offer products and services that are adequate and supportive of this forecast
Societe Generale is recognised in private banking worldwide as an expert bank with products and solutions that are very well accepted. For private banking, it is very important to understand the local market and the needs of our clients. We believe that Serbia is a good market for the development of private banking, due to several positive factors. We have a population that is highly educated and has a good understanding of financial instruments. Also, we see very good prospects for Serbia given the economic growth of the past period.
Moreover, in our opinion, the economy will keep recovering and will grow in the future as well, so our view is that we are able to offer products and services that are adequate and supportive for this forecast, says Luka Đedović, Head of Private Banking at Societe Generale Srbija.
Supported by the expertise of Societe Generale Private Banking, Societe Generale Srbija, a subsidiary of the Societe Generale Group, has expanded its private banking offer for top-tier clients. What are the results so far?
– In partnership and with the support of Societe Generale Group’s Private Banking globally, last year we decided to increase the level of service that we offer our private banking clients by introducing the expertise that our bank has in this segment on the global level.
Typical private banking clients (both in Serbia and in other countries) mainly represent entrepreneurs (company owners), top managers of large companies, as well as people that inherited their assets
We launched the new set-up at the end of September last year by introducing a new service for our Clients, which is the Investment Advisory service, providing advice concerning investments in securities on foreign markets, such as stocks and bonds.
Given that this concept and approach was launched relatively recently, the initial results show that there is a high level of interest in this type of service and offer.
Who are typical private banking clients?
– Typical private banking clients (both in Serbia and in other countries) mainly represent entrepreneurs (company owners), top managers of large companies, as well as people that inherited their assets. As for the concrete services we offer our clients, besides daily banking services, we introduced the Investment Advisory service with the main aim of advising our clients on how to invest their assets. These are clients who already know they want to invest, and our task is to find the most adequate solution for their investment.
What are the main differences between private banking and investment banking?
– There are certain differences between private banking and investment banking. In private banking, we work with wealthy clients who have certain assets and our main job is to protect those assets. Private banking usually consists of three different segments – the first refers to advice and recommendations concerning investment products. The clients know that they want to invest and the Bank’s role is to advise them concerning the most adequate products in which they can invest their assets.
The second segment is the execution. In this segment, clients have their projects and know where they want to invest, while the Bank is there to ensure the best possible execution, meaning the best quality of service for their request.
The third segment is wealth management, as well as projecting and planning what the clients will do with those assets in the future. For now, wealth management and the managing of clients’ assets is not available in our offer in Serbia.