The War for Talent in Private Banking: A Reality Check for Banks and Bankers

Private banking has always been built on people. Relationships, trust, and reputation are the cornerstones of this business. For decades, the formula for growth seemed simple: hire bankers with portable books, watch clients follow, and declare victory.

But in 2025, that playbook is broken. The war for talent has become a zero-sum game, one bank’s win is another’s loss, and the overall pie is not expanding fast enough to justify the cost and effort. Worse, the industry keeps doubling down on outdated practices, clinging to rituals that everyone knows do not work. Meanwhile, bankers themselves are caught between fear and frustration, overthinking moves and undervaluing action.

This is not a polite observation. It is a reality check, for hiring managers who need to rethink how they build teams, and for bankers who need to stop hiding behind excuses.

The Myth of Instant Growth

On paper, hiring still looks like the easiest way to grow. Take a banker with a $400m book, promise them an uplift, and wait for the clients to come across. But anyone who has been on the inside knows how this really plays out. Compliance hurdles mean client transfers take months, sometimes years. Market volatility eats into portfolios. And clients themselves no longer follow a banker blindly; they want the lending platform, the private credit pipeline, the digital capabilities. If those are not there, loyalty to a banker alone will not cut it.

The result is a cycle of frustration. Banks hire aggressively, announce ambitious targets, then quietly admit months later that the inflows fell far short. A global bank that promotes the goal of bringing in $10bn with a mass hiring programme. After three years of onboarding delays and attrition, it barely managed a third of that. Meanwhile, a boutique underdog that hired three senior bankers, moved quickly on documentation, and outperformed everyone’s expectations.

The lesson is clear: scale and headcount do not guarantee growth, execution does.

The Junior Banker Dilemma

The strain is most evident not at the top, but further down the ladder. Banks have leaned on junior RMs as a cheaper way to build future capacity. On paper, it is logical: AVPs and Associates cost less, they can be shaped, and they represent succession. In reality, it is a revolving door.

Here is the problem: juniors do not carry the same authority. When a veteran MD calls a patriarch to demand the deed to a property or an inheritance certificate, the client complies because decades of trust are behind the ask. When a 32-year-old Associate Director tries the same, it falls flat. The trust is not there to cut through the friction.

So juniors end up chasing documents they cannot command, missing targets, and losing credibility. Many get absorbed into teams as glorified assistants. Others spin back into consumer banking where hurdles are lower. The cost to banks is huge; wasted hiring, wasted training, and no pipeline of future leaders.

And let us be honest, the industry is fast becoming barbell-shaped: heavy at the top with expensive veterans, hollow in the middle where succession should be, and overloaded at the bottom with disposable juniors. That is not a structure built for resilience, it is a ticking time bomb.

The Client Lens, Through the Banker

There’s a side to this talent war that often gets overlooked; the client experience. I don’t sit in front of UHNW clients myself, but I hear the frustration loud and clear from the bankers I work with.

Again and again, they tell me how embarrassing it can be to chase a client three times for the same piece of documentation [modified] because internal teams are not aligned. I’ve had senior RMs explain how the lack of coordination between compliance, onboarding, and front office leaves them red-faced in front of families they have known for years.

One banker recently told me bluntly: “I spend more time apologising to my client for my own bank than I do managing his portfolio.”

That frustration filters back to us in search. It is often the spark that gets bankers picking up the phone in the first place. Not money, not title; but the constant erosion of credibility with clients due to inefficiency.

This is the hidden cost banks need to wake up to. Because if the banker loses confidence in the bank, the client inevitably does too.

The Psychology of Moving: Stop Overthinking Coffee

As if structural hurdles were not enough, the psychology of bankers today is another drag on the system. I hear it daily: “How did she get that job?” The answer is usually blunt from myself: “Because she took the bloody coffee.” – It’s not rocket science.

That is the difference. Too many bankers are paralysed by the what-ifs. They want to talk, but they do not want to act. They agonise over whether their clients will tolerate another onboarding process, as if this is something unheard of. Let us be clear: clients have been through this more times than you likely have. There are very few documents a UHNW client has not already provided somewhere, sometime. They know the drill.

It’s no longer an alien process to clients; they’re more ready than most expect and this is unlikely their first time providing a “Source of Wealth”.

Yes, moving is hard. Yes, onboarding is painful. But progression does not come gift-wrapped. It comes from risk, discomfort, and execution. If you want certainty, you are in the wrong industry.

So here is the message: stop overthinking coffee. Take the meeting. Use it to benchmark yourself, to ask the silly questions, to test cultural fit. The first meeting is not an interview anymore, it is a dialogue. And the hiring manager is just as invested in getting this right as you are, because no one can afford the wrong hire today.

I have seen too many careers stall because bankers waited for the “perfect moment” that never arrived. Meanwhile, their peers took the coffee, took the risk, and took the step forward.

The Feedback Gap: A Silent Dealbreaker

One of the most overlooked but critical parts of the hiring process is feedback. Increasingly, I see a troubling trend of serial interviewing without timely or thoughtful follow-up. It is not just poor practice, it is corrosive to trust.

Feedback is more than a tool to guide candidates through later stages of the process, it is a mark of professional courtesy, respect, and intent. When feedback arrives a week after an interview, or only after repeated chasing, the message is clear: the process is not a priority. For senior professionals especially, that silence is deafening. It pushes them away, leaving a lasting impression of inefficiency or lack of seriousness.

Hiring managers need to recognise that timely, constructive feedback keeps candidates engaged, aligned, and motivated. It shows commitment, builds credibility, and helps ensure that the process does not derail.

The responsibility also cuts both ways. Candidates should be encouraged to follow up with their own post-meeting reflections, raising questions that show alignment with the discussion and using insights to prepare for the next stage. Done well, feedback is not a one-way courtesy; it is a critical exchange that keeps dialogue on track and momentum alive.

The Business Plan Farce

If all of this were not enough, the industry still clings to one of its most ridiculous relics: the business plan. Every banker moving is asked to produce a spreadsheet of thirty or forty names, broken down year by year, with neat projections of assets and revenues. HR ticks a box, senior management nods, and everyone pretends this proves something.

It does not. It is pointless. In twenty years of search, I have never seen one come true. They are theatre, a paper exercise to justify cost approval that adds nothing to the process.

What matters is not the fantasy list. What matters are the anchor clients, the five to ten relationships that actually count. The ones with trust deep enough to move assets if, and only if, the bank makes it seamless.

That is where the focus should be. Can their trusts, funds, and lending structures be replicated on day one? Can fees be dropped to remove friction? Are there PEP issues, adverse media, or overlaps that will cause delays? And most importantly, can these anchor clients be onboarded in weeks, not months, so the banker is generating profit before probation ends?

Forget the thirty-name spreadsheet. Make the anchors a success first. Then, and only then, start chasing the rest. Anything else is a waste of time.

The Compensation Illusion

Compensation is another battleground where reality and perception rarely meet. Bankers are overpricing their value, often driven by fear, while banks are too slow to acknowledge that the risks bankers face are real. Both sides need to accept that the answer lies in the middle ground, not at either extreme.

This is not a front-loaded compensation industry. Like any sales role, private banking is salary plus performance bonus. The question is not “how big is the uplift,” but “how is performance measured and how is value derived?”

Formula vs Discretionary: A Tale as Old as Time

A formula bonus is not automatically better than a discretionary one. Transparency may look attractive, it may even be contractual, but it often comes with benchmarks and haircuts, that often allow banks to claw back when needed. Formulas are not gifts. They are ‘carrots’ often used by banks with weaker brands, platforms, or lending ability to lure talent. On a pure-play platform, an ED/MD banker may generate $3m to $5m in revenues with a 20% total compensation payout. On paper, that looks attractive. But compare it to a mainstream platform where the payout is only 12–15%, yet the same banker likely generates $1m to 2m more through lending solutions, wider product infrastructure and collaboration. Net-net, it balances out. The formula is fanfare, not fortune.

Guaranteed Bonus vs Sign-On: What’s the Difference?

The same applies to guarantees. A guaranteed bonus is simply a safety net for bankers, not a ceiling-breaker on earning potential. It ensures you do not earn less than your previous average, usually considering up to three years of payout patterns. It is protection, not a bonus top-up; remember that. If you want more, ask for a sign-on in replacement of a guarantee, but understand that a sign-on has ceilings and they’re linked to a performance target. One is a cushion, the other is a carrot. Choose carefully.

And bankers, be realistic about base salaries. Asking for 40% more comp while projecting 30% less revenue is not a negotiation, it is fantasy. Compensation is negotiable, yes, but only when it is justified and quantified. The fantasy of perceived value needs to align with the reality of expectation.

And here is the key point: trust your headhunter. If they know the market, they know what will and will not work. They represent both you and the client. Respect that balance. When they advise you down, it is to protect your credibility. When they push you higher, it is because they know you can.

Banks want balance, bankers want reward. Both can be achieved if everyone stops playing games with expectations.

HR: From Saboteur to Strategic

Too often, HR has been painted as the silent saboteur in this process. By demanding fantasy business plans, clinging to rigid comp frameworks, and policing rather than partnering, they have slowed growth instead of enabling it.

But as I have outlined in a past article, bankers need to wake up to the fact that HR is no longer the “final formality.” It is now a fundamental, critical part of the hiring process. HR is often the gatekeeper of cost approvals and governance, and their assessment carries as much weight as any market head or CEO. Too many bankers underestimate this, walking into HR conversations unprepared, as if they are simply the box-ticking exercise before the real offer. That mindset is fatal.

Show up. Treat HR as seriously as any other interview. Because in today’s market, HR is not just part of the process, it can be the decision point.

What Happens If Nothing Changes: A Call to Both Sides

If this carousel keeps spinning, the outcome is predictable. Family offices and boutiques will keep poaching the best senior talent. Juniors will abandon the industry, creating a leadership vacuum. Clients, tired of duplication and inefficiency, will drift to platforms that can service faster and better. And big-brand private banks, despite their headcount, will slowly bleed relevance.

This is not theoretical. It is already happening. The question is whether the industry has the courage to stop it.

Hiring managers: stop demanding fantasy business plans, stop pretending thirty names on a spreadsheet mean anything, stop throwing juniors into the fire without tools, and stop dressing up formula bonuses as gifts. Partner with HR, not paperwork and be realistic with market challenges. Invest in onboarding, in digital tools, in centralised support, and in realistic frameworks.

Bankers: stop overthinking. Stop asking why someone else got the job. Stop hiding behind compliance fear. Stop believing your value is automatically 30% higher because of someone else’s uplift. Take the coffee. Test the fit. Be realistic on compensation. Evaluate the risk versus the reward and move if it is right. Progression will never come from waiting until it feels safe, because it never will.

Conclusion and My Message to You

The war for talent in private banking is not being lost because there is no talent. It is being lost because banks are stuck in old habits and bankers are stuck in their heads.

The industry has a choice: continue walking the same tired circuit — recycling veterans, watching juniors walk away, drowning in compliance and paperwork, and clashing endlessly over compensation illusions; or change.

Focus on anchors. Cut the theatre. Invest in execution. Embrace dialogue over paralysis. Because the future will belong to those who do.

And to every banker reading this, a final point. I know this industry, I respect it, and I have lived it for over two decades. In that time, I have placed more than 600 bankers, led some of the industry’s largest team lifts, and advised thousands more.

My value is not just my network; it is my ability to open doors that create new milestones and lasting growth. If you have questions, ask me. Do not hide behind uncertainty or overthink clarity; embrace it, use me. Because one truth remains in this business: opportunities are never found in hesitation… they are created by action.