Banco Sabadell will open a private banking 'hub' on Diagonal in July

Banco Sabadell reorganizes its presence in the center of Barcelona, in line with its commitment to the specialization of its branches to offer better service to customers and in parallel to itsnew strategy to grow in the private banking segment. The entity chaired by Josep Oliu has underway the creation of a network of six large specialized branchesin the Eixample area that will culminate in July with the opening of ahubof private banking in its emblematic tower at number 407 of Diagonal Avenue,whose ownership was transferred to Hinesin December 2021. This reference center for large fortunes and for clients with assets exceeding 100,000 euros will be located on the ground floor and on the first floor of the tower, where there was previously a universal banking branch. In thishubof private banking will work a team of 36 managers, plus a dozen support professionals or those of a more administrative nature. It will be the spearhead to achievethe objective that Banco Sabadell has set to attract some 2,400 new private banking clients in Barcelona in one year.The challenge for the Spanish group is to acquire an additional 7,200 clients in this exclusive market segment by the end of this year. Currently, Sabadell's main private banking team in the Catalan capital is located on the 17th and 18th floors of the tower, premises they will leave this summer, once the renovation works of the traditional banking office on Diagonal-Balmes are completed, which will now be transformed into thehub, that will have an area of more than 500 square meters between the ground floor and first floor. In front of this large branch will beXavier Castells, who since 2005 has been Sabadell's territorial director of private banking in Catalonia. Retail banking clients who until now went to this office in the tower have been redirected to the branch that Sabadell has at Diputació 259-263, between Rambla Catalunya and Paseo de Gràcia, which becomes the bank's reference office in the center of Barcelona, with managers specialized in mortgages, loans, insurance, and savings products. The reorganization has also meant to transfer the specialized team in startups that worked from the tower office to the historic branch of Rambla Catalunya with Roselló, emblematic for Sabadell, as it was the first one opened in the Catalan capital, in 1970. This center was already exclusively dedicated to serving SMEs and businesses and now expands its functions by hosting the managers ofstartups, which have a client portfolio of more than 1,300 startups. In parallel, the entire large business segment ---more than ten million in turnover--- has been concentrated in the office that Sabadell has on Avenida Sarrià with Londres, equipped with managers specialized in different economic sectors. In addition, cash services or cash transactions, highly oriented towards businesses, have been centralized in the Rambla Catalunya 73 branch ---with Valencia. Finally, the network of specialized branches is completed with theWelcome Hub, the office focused on foreign residents that the entity inaugurated just over a year ago at number 456 of Diagonal Avenue and which has been very well received by the community of international citizens living in Barcelona. This branch already has a base of more than 11,000 clients and has increased the number of managers from twelve to fifteen in the last year. "With this reorganization we are not closing anything, we are giving another turn to our model, seeking greater value for our clients who, in just over a kilometer, have six offices specialized in private banking; large companies; SMEs andstartups; foreign residents; universal banking; and servicingor cash service," explain sources from the entity led by César González-Bueno. In total,in Barcelona city Banco Sabadell has 78 branches. With the opening of thehubof private banking, the entity will free up floors 17 and 18 that it still occupies in the old Banco Atlántico tower. Most of the departments that were located in this building moved to the Sant Cugat corporate center during the pandemic with the aim of saving recurring costs and increasing the entity's efficiency. Floor 4, which now houses the headquarters of the territorial management of Catalonia, led byXavier Comerma. Its team will move to floor 2, so Sabadell will only occupy the ground floor and the first and second floors of the new Hines tower, in addition to the 22nd floor, which is reserved for the bank's presidency and institutional representation functions. Hines' goal is to subject the property to acomprehensive rehabilitation, to adapt it to the current quality standards demanded by the office rental market.In this sense, the transformation project will focus on converting the tower into a sustainable building that meets the highest certificates in terms of environment and energy efficiency. When negotiating the sale, Sabadell included a very important clause for the bank in the contract:has secured the power to practically indefinitely maintain its corporate brand at the top of the building, so the property will continue to be associated with the bank. New model to conquer large fortunesAccording to the entity, the bet on inaugurating the new hub at the bottom of the tower "is framed within the comprehensive review of the value proposition that Banco Sabadell has made to improve service to all its private banking clients, supported by its alliance with Amundi." One of the main novelties of the new approach to attracting large fortunes is that itTwo sub-segments of VIP clients are created with a differentiated offer.Until now, to be a client of the private banking area, the bank required assets exceeding 500,000 euros, but with the new strategy, clients with resources of more than 100,000 euros, who previously depended on personal banking—an area that is disappearing—are also integrated. In this way, there will be one segment for assets between 100,000 euros and one million euros (private banking); and another for clients with an available amount exceeding one million euros (wealth). To address this value proposition segmented into two distinct target audiencesthe network has been expanded from 175 to 482 bankersqualified throughout Spain and with experience advising clients since 2018. "A new commercial system, more integrated into the bank to take advantage of synergies with the rest of the business units" has also been adopted, and the technological resources of this business area have been enhanced.Until now, in personal banking there were about 300,000 clients, of which 63,000 will move to the private banking service under the new model. In this business unit there were already 30,000 clients, so now there will be 93,000. By the end of this year, the goal is to attract about 7,200 new customers nationwide, until exceeding 100,000. In Barcelona, the idea is to achieve some 2,400 new private banking clients in one year.