ZURICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The majority of the large European private banks do not adequately address the needs of their clients. This is the key finding of a study conducted by MyPrivateBanking.com, the independent platform for clients of private banks.

The study identifies three main shortcomings of the analysed banks:

• Clients are not listened to: More than 25% of the advisers who were tested practically asked no questions at all.
• Investment not in consensus with the client’s needs: More than half the banks presented an investment proposal that did not adequately take the client’s risk appetite into account: In more than 25% of the cases, the proposed investment was even completely opposite to the customer’s preferences.
• Misleading cost proposals: One third of the banks had fee structures that included a significant amount of hidden costs, through a large number of managed funds and in-house products.

“We were surprised by the high percentage of banks that did not address the investment goals of the customer adequately and just recommended their off-the-shelf proposals.” says Christian Nolterieke, Managing Director of MyPrivateBanking.com.

The private banking of Nordea, Sal. Oppenheim and UBS received overall the best ratings.

• The Scandinavian bank Nordea is the winner and impressed by its extensive customer mapping and an investment proposal that showed that the bank had understood the needs of the customer fully.
• The German private bank Sal. Oppenheim was ranked second and offered a very cost efficient proposal that also did full justice to the client needs.
• The Swiss UBS showed a particularly high level of professionalism in its interactions with customers.

“On average, all surveyed banks attained only 52 of a total of 100 possible points. A very mixed result” says Steffen Binder, Research Director of MyPrivateBanking.com. “However, there were big differences among the banks and not only our winners showed good approaches.”

About the study:

In 2009, analysts of MyPrivateBanking.com visited the Swiss offices of twenty leading European private banks as test customers. More information and download the full study here.

About MyPrivateBanking.com

MyPrivateBanking.com is an independent, global platform for private banking clients. Please check www.myprivatebanking.com