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Quintet Private Bank

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(Redirected from KBL European Private Bankers) Bank in Luxembourg
Quintet Private Bank
Head office of Quintet Private Bank
Company typeprivate
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1949
Headquarters43, Boulevard Royal,
Luxembourg
Key people
  • Rory Tapner (Chairman)
  • Chris Allen (Group CEO)
  • Anna Zakrzewski (Group COO)
  • Nicholas Harvey (Group CFO)
ProductsBanking
Websitewww.quintet.com

Quintet Private Bank is a medium-sized Luxembourg-headquartered bank and wealth manager, founded in 1949 by Belgium's Kredietbank as Kredietbank Luxembourg (KBL), later rebranded KBL European Private Bankers or KBL ebp, and to its present name in 2020. Since 2011, it has been owned by members of the Al-Thani family of Qatar through the holding Precision Capital.

It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.

History

KBL head office entrance and fountain on Boulevard Royal, in 2016

On May 23, 1949, the Brussels-headquartered Kredietbank registered Kredietbank Luxembourg (KBL) as a bank in the Grand Duchy. KBL opened its doors a few months later. In the early days, it had only five employees on its payroll, including the CEO, Constant Franssens. In 1979, the majority of KBL's equity was transferred from Kredietbank to its parent holding company Almanij. In 1996, KBL absorbed Banque continentale du Luxembourg [fr]. In 1998, Kredietbank merged with other financial institutions to form KBC Group, which in turn merged with Almanij in 2005, thus retaking control of KBL.

In October 2011, following conditions set by the European Commission to approve financial support KBC had received from the Flemish authorities in Belgium, KBL was sold to Luxembourg-incorporated holding company Precision Capital, reported to be owned by former Prime Minister of Qatar Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. In 2013, Precision Capital also acquired majority control of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) from Dexia, but in 2017 sold BIL to Chinese investment company Legend Holdings.

In January 2020, KBL epb was renamed Quintet Private Bank.

Business overview

Quintet Private Bank is headquartered in Luxembourg with a presence in 35 cities across Europe and the UK. As of end 2023, the company counted 1,701 employees (FTE) and €92 billion in total client assets. It is owned by Precision Capital, a Luxembourg-based bank holding company controlled by members of the Al Thani family of Qatar.

Quintet provides wealth management and additional investment services through its Financial Intermediaries and Asset Servicing business lines. Quintet has subsidiaries in European countries: Puilaetco in Belgium, Merck Finck Privatbankiers in Germany, Quintet Luxembourg in Luxembourg, InsingerGIlissen in Netherlands and Brown Shipley in the United Kingdom. In 2020, Quintet opened for business in Denmark.

Quintet's Financial Intermediaries business line provides a range of services for external asset managers and multi-family offices. These include custody and execution services as well as access to CIO research, lending, private markets investments and structured products. Quintet's Financial Intermediaries business line operates in the UK, Luxembourg, Belgium and Netherlands. Quintet's Asset Servicing business line provides a range of services for asset managers, insurance companies and banks. These include: fund services for institutional and private investors and for independent asset managers; custody services, trading and lending facilities. As an independent depository, Quintet maintains an open-architecture platform that is connected to a high number of external fund administrators and management companies in Luxembourg.


Controversy

One of KBL's (and Kredietbank's) main shareholders in the postwar period, André Vlerick, was actively involved in public advocacy of the Apartheid-promoting regime of South Africa and support of its circumvention of sanctions.

In April 2018, NGO OpenSecrets, in partnership with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the Georgetown University Law Center, filed a complaint at the OECD, claiming that KBC and KBL had violated the Organization's Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in their dealings with South Africa between 1977 and 1994. According to the complaint, KBC and KBL together "were responsible for facilitating up to 70% of all illegal arms transactions that allowed the apartheid government to secretly buy weapons despite mandatory UN arms sanctions." As part of that process, OpenSecrets and CALS submitted a detailed document to the OECD contact points in Belgium and Luxembourg to support their claim. At the same time, hearings were held on the matter at South Africa's People's Tribunal on Economic Crime led by Zak Yacoob in Johannesburg.

References

  1. "Qatar-backed private bank plots hiring spree in global push". Financial Times. 16 January 2020.
  2. "Shake-up at Luxembourg's Qatar-owned Quintet bank". Financial Times. 15 September 2020.
  3. "The list of significant supervised entities and the list of less significant institutions" (PDF). European Central Bank. 4 September 2014.
  4. "List of supervised entities" (PDF). European Central Bank. 1 January 2023.
  5. "Kredietbank and Kredietbank Luxembourg – Ownership Structures" (PDF). People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime.
  6. "Former Qatar prime minister rejoins dealmaking stage". Financial Times. 20 May 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  7. "Closing of the sale of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg" (PDF). Dexia. 5 October 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  8. Grunwald, Aaron (16 January 2020). "KBL rebrands as Quintet". Delano. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  9. Quintet, Quintet (1 April 2022). "2023 Annual Report" (PDF). Quintet Private Bank. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  10. "Qatar royal family swoop on Belgian, Luxembourg banks". Arab Times.
  11. "Precision Capital acquires KBL epb, KBC's private banking subsidiary". Reuter. Archived from the original on 2014-02-28.
  12. "Quintet Private Bank launches operations in Denmark". 5 October 2020.
  13. "Quintet opens a second branch in Denmark".
  14. "Quintet Private Bank: Now it's finally time to show who we are". 5 October 2020.
  15. "Quintet continues Nordic expansion".
  16. "Thomas Klein rejoint la direction de Quintet Europe".
  17. "Thomas Klein nommé Group Head of Asset Servicing, Europe, au sein de Quintet Private Bank - Merkur - CorporateNews".
  18. "Quintet Hires from UBS". 31 May 2021.
  19. "Quintet Private Bank ernennt Thomas Klein zum Group Head of Asset Servicing Europe". 27 May 2021.
  20. "Stephan Matti | Investment Officer".
  21. "Brown Shipley expands its offering to Financial Intermediaries with the Hire of Philipp Iarmaltchou".
  22. "Brown Shipley taps Julius Baer for new intermediary role". 18 January 2021.
  23. "#Declassified: Apartheid profits - André Vlerick: banker and bigot". News24. 30 August 2017.
  24. "Apartheid Banks: Civil society groups demand accountability for apartheid profiteers". Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. 19 April 2018.
  25. KBL European Private Bankers and KBC Group Belgium: Failure to comply with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in respect of violations of UNSC arms embargoes against apartheid South Africa during 1977 – 1994 - Submission to the Luxembourg and Belgium National Contact Points (PDF), 24 April 2018
  26. Marc Davies (19 April 2018). "Apartheid's Bankers To Face Official OECD Complaint". Huffington Post UK.
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