ABBEY NATIONAL LAUNCHES INSCAPE WEALTH MANAGEMENT BUSINESS IN SCOTLAND

Transcription

1 30 th September 2001 ABBEY NATIONAL LAUNCHES INSCAPE WEALTH MANAGEMENT BUSINESS IN SCOTLAND Advice centre to cater for the estimated 330,000 people in Scotland with 50,000 or more put away Abbey National has launched Inscape, its wealth management business, in Scotland as part of the service s plans to bring high quality financial advice to the four million people in the UK with more than 50,000 to invest. The centre will be situated in Glasgow and will cater for the whole of Scotland, creating 15 new jobs in the local area. The launch of Inscape reinforces Abbey National s position as one of Scotland s leading employers: in Glasgow alone, Abbey National employs 1800 people in the city across its Scottish Mutual, Scottish Provident and Abbey National Life businesses. At a time when investors in Scotland are deciding how to respond to significant uncertainty in financial markets, the launch of Inscape provides investors with worldclass risk and investment management advice necessary in such a volatile financial climate. Inscape targets the diverse and growing market of over four million people in the UK with more than 50,000 to invest and estimates that over 330,000 people in the Scotland area fall into this category around 8% of all adults. These people are part of the UK s growing mass affluent group, who, through Inscape, will be offered the more/

2 Cont/ 2 ABBEY NATIONAL LAUNCHES INSCAPE WEALTH MANAGEMENT BUSINESS IN SCOTLAND sort of individual attention and advice usually only enjoyed by the very wealthy. Inscape offers investment management in the form of tailored portfolios, deposit accounts and a range of complementary services including tax planning and trust management. The new advice centre is based at 6 th floor, Monteith House, 11 George Square, Glasgow, and caters for customers as far apart as Inverness and Dumfries, providing professional face-to-face advice from a dedicated relationship manager seven days a week, as well as support from a telephone team, available outside of normal office hours. Clients will be able to access some of the world s best fund managers, some of which are being made available to private investors in the UK for the very first time. They will be able to access daily updated information on their investment portfolios via the Internet and will receive monthly statements and quarterly performance reports by post. Ellie O Connell, Regional Client Relationship Manager of the Glasgow advice centre, said: Our service will offer the people of Scotland a ground-breaking combination of firstclass personal advice and attention, with access to some of the best fund management skills in the world. In uncertain financial markets our manager of managers approach combines crucial flexibility with maximum control over how clients money is invested, providing a service that is finely tuned to their needs. Previously this sophisticated method of managing investments was only available to institutions and an elite few. Inscape is employing the following fund managers under direct contract: State Street Global Advisors AXA Rosenberg Investment Management Abbey National Asset Managers More/.

3 Cont/ 3 ABBEY NATIONAL LAUNCHES INSCAPE WEALTH MANAGEMENT BUSINESS IN SCOTLAND CDC IXIS Asset Management Goldman Sachs Asset Management International Wellington Management International Schroder Investment Management International Dresdner RCM Global Investors Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Malcolm Parker, Managing Director of Inscape, said: Inscape has been carefully developed for the mass affluent market of around 330,000 adults in Scotland, and the four million adults who fall into this group throughout the UK. We have built the service from the bottom up, after listening carefully to this new group of people to develop a service which tailors and manages their investments to suit their very different needs. Glasgow was chosen as a prime site for us because of its position as a leading financial centre, and I believe this new advice centre will be every bit as successful as our others. In addition to the Glasgow office, Inscape has nine other advice centres in Central London, Watford, Bromley, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Guildford, Chelmsford and Cardiff and will be opening more centres in key locations. For further information about Inscape, customers should contact , or log on at ENDS Photographs are available to accompany this story please call Lorna Gozzard/ Suzanne Hitchcock on more/

4 Cont/ 4 ABBEY NATIONAL LAUNCHES INSCAPE WEALTH MANAGEMENT BUSINESS IN SCOTLAND For further information, please contact: Lorna Gozzard/ Suzanne Hitchcock/ Andrew Reid, Fishburn Hedges Tel: Gug Kyriacou, Media Relations, Abbey National Tel: Ellie O Connor, Inscape s Glasgow advice centre Tel: Notes to Editors 1. Inscape is based at 6 th floor, Monteith House, 11 George Square, Glasgow. 2. Inscape is a new investment management service from Abbey National, intended for people with at least 50,000 to invest, which is a growing market of approximately four million people in the UK. Inscape provides the sort of individual attention and advice usually only enjoyed by the very wealthy. Inscape delivers its services primarily through a new network of advice centres where clients can meet dedicated relationship managers for face-to-face professional advice, seven days a week. Portfolios are tailored to meet each client s needs and will draw on Inscape s access to some of the world s leading fund managers. Inscape is a registered trademark of Abbey National plc. Inscape Investments Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Abbey National plc. Registered in England No Inscape is regulated by IMRO. The Inscape advice centre in Glasgow is now open for business. 3. Figures for the numbers of people in the mass affluent bracket in Glasgow and Scotland are based on the assumption that 8% of the UK adult population have 50,000 or more in liquid assets. Concentration of people in this group may vary between regions.

5 4. Abbey National is one of the UK s leading financial services providers. It started out as a mutual building society over 150 years ago and converted to a bank in At this point, almost all of the Group s income was derived from savings and mortgages. Since then, it has followed a programme of diversification and today Abbey National offers a wide range of financial services to both personal and business customers. With assets of almost 200bn, Abbey National is the fifth largest bank in the UK. In its 2000 full year results, the Group reported profit before tax of 1,975m, up 11% on the previous year. Today, Abbey National has 15 million customers, over two million shareholders and more than 30,000 employees.