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The last 12 months I managed the Online Team for ABN AMRO MeesPierson Private Banking. I was responsible from a cross-media perspective for the use of the online channels, social media and mobile in achieving customer satisfaction, sales and service objectives.

I’am very proud that Benchmarking the Top 40 Private-Banking-Websites, we made a leap from 23rd place in 2011 and are now moved up to the 1st place. In the annual global ranking of the websites of 40 leading wealth managers and private banks by Swiss research company MyPrivateBanking Research the private banking websites of ABN AMRO Private MeesPierson Banking, UBS and Royal Bank of Canada come out as the Top 3 in the 2012 report “Wealth Management Websites That Win Clients”. However, the overall quality of the private banking and wealth management websites under evaluation did not improve and stayed at an average of 61 out of a maximum of 100 points, just in line with the 2011 results.

ABN AMRO MeesPierson Private Banking made an impressive leap from 24th place in the 2011 ranking straight to the number one spot in this year’s ranking with a total of 86 out of 100 points. In particular, the Dutch website scores especially well on comprehensive information on costs and fees as well as the performance data for products and services. Such transparency is not available on any other private banking website.

Last year’s winner UBS lags 6 points, but still impresses by the wide range of interactive features and the accuracy of the search function. Royal Bank of Canada’s wealth management websites moved up by six places and gained the 3rd place with an overall score of 77 points. Overall, the Top 10 became a far more internationally diverse group compared to 2011, including banks from nine different countries compared to only six in the 2011 report.

Top 10 Private Banking Websites (overall 40 banks ranked):

ABN AMRO MeesPierson Private Banking , UBS and RBC demonstrate that private banking websites can be far more than online brochures. However, the average bank’s performance is not even close to that of the top performers, failing often in even meeting basic requirements in navigation, content and interactivity.

The MyPrivateBanking report highlights the following as the main weaknesses: Many websites of private banks don’t meet the basic requirements of navigation and structure. For more than half of the banks under analysis, the search function is a major problem area as is the 25 % of the private banking websites that are only available in one language.

The lack of transparency is highly problematic: less than 20 % of the banks provide comprehensive information on the performance or the costs of the products and services offered.

Despite the growing importance of interaction and social media channels, 70% of the banks under evaluation fail in linking the private banking website to social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. In addition, social media content on the website is also often unavailable.

The majority of these private banking providers still need to understand that wealthy clients are a client segment that demands special attention and specific information on a dedicated website. Retail banking clients often have much better and more informative websites available to them than the more affluent private banking clients.