Consolidation game: Is wealth M&A set to accelerate further?

Bulking up and diversifying out

Robert Hare, managing director of pensions - wealth and stockbrokers, at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, says the recent wave of wealth management M&A is only the start of the sector's turnaround.

The pace of consolidation in the wealth management sector shows little sign of abating as firms continue to grapple with a range of commercial, economic and regulatory pressures.   According to a study by the Scorpio Partnership this year, there was $461.3bn of wealth management assets involved in mergers and acquisitions in 2014. The UK was the most active country in 2014 for merger and acquisition activity in the wealth management sector, and over the course of the year there were 50 deals completed, including Rathbone Brothers' acquisition of Jupiter Asset Management's private clie...