Quintet Private Bank, headquartered in Luxembourg and operating across Europe, announced today the signing of a memorandum of understanding with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. This will extend Quintet’s investment capabilities, significantly strengthening its ability to meet the long-term needs of its clients while retaining full control of all its investment decision-making.

Under the terms of the recently signed MoU, BlackRock will provide the European private bank with access to an expanded set of investment tools, products and solutions. Quintet will draw upon a range of new funds, launched exclusively for its clients, leveraging BlackRock’s scale. Quintet will also have access to Aladdin, BlackRock’s proprietary risk-management technology platform, which will be deployed to support risk management and reporting of Quintet’s funds and discretionary solutions.

BlackRock will provide advice on Quintet’s asset-allocation strategy, reflecting the specific investment objectives designed by Quintet to meet the needs of its clients. While retaining its open-architecture approach, the European private bank will have access to an extended product range via BlackRock, benefiting from its support in the selection and monitoring of third-party managers. Quintet will therefore be able to provide its clients with access to a broader universe of investment opportunities.

“We are delighted to announce our intent to partner with BlackRock,” said Chris Allen, Group CEO of Quintet. “We selected BlackRock because of the depth and quality of their investment expertise, the scale of their investment reach and the strength of their risk-management platform. All of that will facilitate the work of our investment specialists, complementing and enhancing Quintet’s client proposition.

“Our decision to partner with BlackRock will support our ability to remain on the front foot of product and portfolio innovation,” he said. “That, in turn, will help us serve our clients even better – with increased reach, efficiency and flexibility – as we continually strive to deliver robust client outcomes.”

Allen added: “As today’s announcement demonstrates, we are focused on strengthening the foundation of our firm to support sustained growth. That includes through our broader strategy refresh – a series of measures we will continue to implement consistently over the course of this year and 2024 – designed to create additional economies of scale, reduce organizational complexity and further enhance collaboration in service to our clients.

“Extending our investment capabilities, with BlackRock’s expertise, will prove a key driver of our journey to sustained profitability and long-term growth, as we seek to become an even more efficient firm, where client interests are at the heart of everything we do.”

Stephen Cohen, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at BlackRock, said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Quintet to strengthen their investment capabilities on this next stage of their growth strategy. Forward-looking clients such as Quintet are increasingly using BlackRock as a platform to support their investment management and financial technology needs. We look forward to delivering our investment solutions, risk-management technology and research capabilities to complement and enhance the existing Quintet proposition to meet the evolving long-term financial needs of their clients.”

The contractual terms between Quintet and BlackRock remain subject to final agreement, expected in the third quarter of this year. The terms of that agreement will not be disclosed.