Managing wealth in private banking:
‘The key is building long-term relationships’

(front to back) Lorna Theaker, Sasha Propper,
Fiona Graham, Hannah McLaughlin provide client and
private banking services.

Andrew Galloway checks client information while
Jessie Medina prepares clients’ financial statements.

Glorene Jackson provides business support

Andrew Galloway talks about international investment
strategies.

Duane Bodden provides IT desktop support.

Andrew Galloway discusses new business clients
with Relationship Manager Andrew Budd.

Monday,  June  27, 2005

As the Managing Director for Coutts (Cayman) Limited, Andrew Galloway specialises in wealth management for private individuals throughout the Caribbean. This position requires a VIP touch, exceptional contacts as well as in-depth investment knowledge, and those people expecting him to be strictly highbrow, haven’t seen Mr Galloway’s passion with rugby clinics for kids. 

Although he was born in Scotland, he didn’t get a chance to spend much time there because it was a family tradition to live abroad. His grandfather worked in a jute mill in India where he raised his family. His father continued the legacy by working as an accountant for an international firm in Kenya during the Mau Mau rising and moving on to Hong Kong, Lebanon and Bahrain. 

Mr Galloway would go home to Scotland to go to school, but when he had a nine-month break before university, he went travelling on a ‘work as you go trip.’ His first stop was South Africa where he sold encyclopaedias door to door.

“I went to South Africa when it was still under apartheid. It was very easy for people to criticise my going there because they thought my going was supporting apartheid. But I wanted to see for myself what it was like. My argument was how are you going to learn about the issue without going and seeing it for yourself?”

In Australia, he worked in the Tax Department and admits he really didn’t know what he was doing. And then he spent a month in Fiji, not working at all. 

He found history fascinating so when the time came to go to university, he almost applied for a combination of history and law degree, except that another student from his school was also trying to get into Cambridge to study history so he was advised to go straight for law school to improve his chances of getting in. 

After law school, Mr Galloway did his articles with Slaughter & May. And after two years, he worked doing a broad range of corporate finance work: mergers and acquisitions, privatisation, funds and banking. He could have continued this way for years, considering that working in corporate finance in London would solidify most lawyers’ careers, but the years he has spent abroad were a legacy he could not resist.

“I looked at some of the guys in house who were five or six years ahead of me and I asked myself if I really wanted to be where they were in five years and I said no,” Mr Galloway reflected.

“In my view there are a lot of places that have a quality of life higher than in the UK. I always operated under the idea that I would live abroad. 

“I didn’t like living in London where everyone is in a hurry and didn’t have time for anyone. I like that in Cayman, anywhere you go you might run into people you know and people take the time to be friendly and unpretentious. It is a nice place to be.”

Mr Galloway was originally interviewed for a job with Coutts on the Isle of Man. It was a lovely place, but wet, cold and miserable much of the year. 
Still he thought it would give him valuable offshore experience. However, there were some last minute adjustments and when they asked Mr Galloway if he would mind taking a job as the manager of new business in the Cayman Islands instead, it didn’t take long to make up his mind.

Since his arrival in 1994, Mr Galloway found himself at home in Cayman where he now focuses on the specialised and competitive market of wealth management for private individuals located throughout the Caribbean. 

As international corporations grow big and successful sometimes the clients get lost in the fray. Not so at Coutts. The key to private banking is building long-term relationships. So it is not surprising that each client is assigned a relationship manager who invests his money according to their financial goals and risk tolerance such as hedge funds, traditional domestic and international funds. 

Relationship Managers also facilitate specialized needs such as estate planning. Coutts has a team of relationship managers in Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. 

“We analyse their investment needs and objectives and put it together,” explained Mr Galloway. “This varies from person to person. But a typical mid-range portfolio would be 50 percent fixed income such as government, corporate and high yield bonds and 50 percent equity.

“Most clients are not high-risk investors. Most clients want to see their money grow at a sensible rate, and protect it and have it looked after.”

He explained that mutual funds registered in Dublin are used as the building blocks for the international market, while UK funds serve the UK domestic market. He acknowledged that over the years there have been some mistakes but clients will stick with you if you deliver quality service. 
“If you are honest with clients and you deliver a good service, people realise the value of what they are getting and they will keep coming back to you.”

He explained that private banking is really competitive, but on a global rather than a local basis.

“We compete against a broad range of entities and jurisdictions. There are a lot of investment management services on the Island, but most specialise in corporate investment.”

He explained that specialising in high net worth clients is necessary in Cayman because they have more complex needs, and the costs are higher here than in some other jurisdictions. 

“The quality of professionals, the support side and the infrastructure are high end here so they are paying for quality service,” he said.

“For my part, I see a need for wealthy individuals to have more local access to top wealth management service.”

He added the best training in international finance is to gain experience working abroad. 

“From a Caymanian point of view, it is hard to get the breadth of experience that you can abroad. The best training for Caymanians is to go off Island. Get work experience in international finance centres like London and New York. Make the contacts, establish your credentials and then bring it back to Cayman, because then Cayman will continue to compete.”

Mr Galloway explained that it was only about a week after Hurricane Ivan that the bank was back in business. The data was backed up offshore and the relationship managers were on the phone to clients as soon as they got to a phone in Jersey or offshore jurisdiction. Today the 50 staff members are housed in the Citrus Grove building until renovations are complete at his home office on West Bay Road in a few months. 

Outside of work, Mr Galloway said raising his three children Libby, Cameron and Teagan along with his wife Sharon is his most important work. 

“With kids your priorities change and they become the most important things,” he said.

“I want to do work that is meaningful and still work hard but I don’t want to live for my work.”

A big part of his time is spent setting up rugby clinics for kids with international Rugby athletes to generate interest and enthusiasm in the sport. 

“These are not just anybody who works in the office during the day and plays at night. These are legendary Seven’s Rugby players that we bring to teach these clinics. This year we had Amasio Valence, the New Zealand Rugby Captain who has won the Seven series title six years in a row. And kids love it. 

“Last year we were having a clinic and it was pouring and you know how no one goes outside when it is raining. We had 80 kids on the playing field for 45 minutes during torrential rain and they didn’t want to stop.”

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