The banking industry has begun putting greater emphasis on private banking as it seeks to increase profitability and eradicate huge loan-loss charges.
Private banking services include advising corporate owners and the wealthy on asset management, maximizing cash flows from real estate holdings, passing on founders' businesses to heirs, and mergers and acquisitions.
Major banks are marshaling their personnel and financial resources for private banking because in recent years the more promising the outlook of a company has been, the more tenuous its transactions with a bank have become.