Private Banking: Chase Names 2 Execs For Fixed-Income Area Of Global

Chase Manhattan Bank has announced two hires in the fixed-income division of the banking company's investment management arm that handles global private banking.

Susan Shun-Ming Huang has been brought in to head the U.S. fixed-income unit of Chase Asset Management, the money management unit that handles the investments of Chase's private banking and institutional investment clients, as well as the assets of the Vista mutual funds.

Ms. Shun, who most recently was the director and senior fixed-income portfolio manager at Hyperion Capital Management, will report to Mark Richardson, Chase Asset Management's managing director and chief investment officer.

Also, Bruce Whiteford has been brought into a new position as manager of the investment management unit's U.S.-based fixed-income funds.

Chase said Mr. Whiteford will oversee a dynamic area: Its Vista bond and money market mutual fund assets now stand at $5 billion, a 178% growth rate in the last three years. Assets of all Vista funds exceed $8.6 billion, the bank said.

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As banks are lining up to either buy or team up with money management firms, they inevitably want to know what they're getting into.

At least that is the assumption of Investment Counseling Inc., a consulting firm that is sponsoring an industrywide look at the investment management world.

The study will take the form of a questionnaire that tests all aspects of the business, including client type, asset type, revenue size and growth, and profitability.

About 100 participants are expected to send in their responses, and they include independent money management firms and money management subsidiaries of banks and trust companies, according to Paul Schaeffer, a partner at Investment Counseling, West Conshohocken, Pa.

Mr. Schaeffer said that the study, which will withhold the names of banker participants, will help banks evaluate themselves.

"If they're thinking of buying a money management firm or a mutual fund company, this will give them benchmarking in terms of how to look at and analyze those acquisitions and how to think about some of the integration issues, postintegration," he said.

The deadline for participation in the study is the end of this month, so call Investment Counseling at 610-941-9720.

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The latest entry into the private banking arena is neither a bank nor a brokerage firm. It's a magazine.

Worth magazine, a New York-based monthly that covers personal finances, has just published a glossy private banking supplement. Billed as a "Guide to Private Banking," the 28-page supplement is made up of an article discussing overall trends and services in private banking, and a listing of 34 mostly U.S. private banks "that are the real thing."

This is the magazine's first try at private banking. A Worth spokeswoman said it was done as a result of an increasing interest in this part of the banking industry.

But the supplement can't be found at newsstands. According to the spokeswoman, over 50,000 issues have been sent out to magazine subscribers residing in "affluent zip code" areas, as well as to clients of exclusive Worth advertisers that made their lists available to the magazine.

A number of banks, like Chemical and Swiss Bank, took out ads on their private banking services. But with Rolls-Royce, Cartier, and Lamborghini as some of the other advertisers in the supplement, it is clear why this supplement may indeed not be for everyone.

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