Entwistle's new Scots private bank plan

A FORMER chairman of troubled private bank Adam & Company has announced plans to launch a rival based in Edinburgh and London.

Ray Entwistle, 66, who retired from a 26-year career with Royal Bank of Scotland-owned Adam & Co last February, has ambitious plans to raise up to 100 million to set up a private bank.

Entwistle is joined in the venture by Simon Miller, a former Adam & Co board member, along with fellow non-executive directors David Nabarro and Alex Hammond-Chambers.

Alan Morgan, a former director of McKinsey, is acting as a consultant to the board.

The directors have set up a holding company for the as yet unnamed bank, provisionally called Scoban. It is understood the firm has yet to apply to the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, for a banking licence but that the directors will apply in the next few months.

Entwistle said the new bank could be up and running by July 2012. It intends to raise an initial 500,000 investment to fund the development plan to be submitted to the FSA.

It will then attempt to raise a further 3m to hire senior management and staff, followed by a third funding round, raising between 50m and 100m, to "provide appropriate working capital and support offices in London and Edinburgh".

In a statement, the board of Scoban said it was "confident in the outcome as the FSA, the British Banking Association and the government are all keen to see the formation of new banks".

Entwistle said he has been "pleased" by the response to the new venture which will be "based around the true values and traditions of the great British private bank".

He said: "My London and Edinburgh-based colleagues share my view that it's high time for the creation of a new private bank.

"We want to develop a very close relationship with our clients and their families so that they feel that the bank belongs to them. We want, genuinely, to know our clients and provide them with a decision-making process which facilitates a speedy and efficient response to their needs.

"The interest we have received from potential investors has been overwhelming and I feel that our timing is right in terms of the interest rate cycle."

The announcement of the new bank follows major shifts in the private banking and wealth management landscape in Scotland in recent years as Adam & Co changes its business model while suffering the loss of key staff. It is now hiring again.

The new bank will also launch into an increasingly crowded Scottish market. In addition to incumbents like Bank of Scotland and Barclays Wealth, Societe Generale has opened a private bank, Hambros, in the capital.Other new investment and wealth managers that have begun jostling for business in Scotland include Rathbone Brothers, Rensburg Sheppards Investment Management, Williams de Broe as well as Quilter, a joint venture between Morgan Stanley and Citi, Cazenove Capital Management - formerly Thornhill, Brooks Macdonald and Ruffer.