Austria's Bank Gutmann seeks 50 wealthy Romanians to manage their assets

Austria's Bank Gutmann, a bank specialising in private banking services, plans to attract 50-100 clients to manage their assets in the first year after opening its Bucharest office. "In Romania we'd be happy to have around 50 clients in our first operational year," says Ilinca von Derenthall, whom the Austrians appointed to run Romanian operations, and a member of the bank's managing board. Bank Gutmann has been operating in Romania for around one year on the basis of the European financial passport and is about to open an office in Bucharest. The office will have few functions, though, particularly attracting clients and maintaining relationships with them, which will be carried out by a team of only four people. All the operations related to fund placement and transaction processing will be handled through the bank's central office, of Vienna. Sepp Maier, a partner with Gutmann, says the bank is mainly seeking clients planning to boost their fortunes in the future.