The Scotsman’s Emma Newlands talks to associate director Duncan Gourlay about the growing demand for Private Banking services north of the Border.
‘Somebody said to me once that a good private banker always tends to place himself between the institution and the client, and I think that is true,” asserts Duncan Gourlay, associate director at Weatherbys Private Bank in Scotland. “You’ve very much got to put yourself in the client’s shoes in a lot of circumstances, so that’s probably good advice.”
Gourlay, who joined the lender in 2013, notes that it is one of only two family-owned private banks in the UK and part of the Weatherbys brand, best-known for its activity in horseracing. The group’s roots date back to 1770 as the sport became organised and regulated, when Northumbrian lawyer James Weatherby found himself at its centre on his appointment as secretary to the fledgling Jockey Club. Today the firm is headed by the seventh generation of the family, with Johnny Weatherby chairman of the group and his brother Roger Weatherby chief executive of Weatherbys bank. The company’s heritage is a key selling point, Gourlay point out. “Clients do get that sense that they’re almost treated as part of the family, so that’s very different from a lot of the other providers.”
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