Cash with a Lot of Class

Not all bank customers are grousing about high fees, impersonal service or long teller lines. Wealthy depositors seldom experience any of those indignities. For them, banking has become more convenient and financially rewarding than ever before. At the Manufacturers Hanover headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in New York City, customers with a net worth of more than $ 1 million carry out their transactions in an inner sanctum with dark paneled walls and deep-green carpeting. At least two officers familiar with the individual's finances are on hand so that the customer can borrow $500,000 for, say, a vacation home with little more difficulty than a regular depositor might have in cashing a check. When clients want to talk about long-range investment plans, officers meet them over lunch served by tuxedoed waiters in one of the bank's private dining rooms.

Never have well-to-do customers been so pampered by their banks. The reason is purely profit. Financial institutions make almost all of their money on the richest 20% of their depositors because these depositors engage in the highest-value transactions. Therefore, bankers have added a number of customized services and tastefully appointed offices with the hope of attracting more of these high rollers.

Marketing experts divide preferred customers into several layers. Upscale depositors with accounts of $25,000 or more receive far better banking services than the majority of retail customers. New York's Citibank provides them with money-management accounts, faster waiting lines and more personal attention. The best treatment, however, is reserved for the truly wealthy, the top 1% of customers who receive so-called private banking. At this level, officers will provide almost any financial service imaginable, from stock brokerage to letters of introduction for a foreign business deal. The moneyed customers of Manhattan's U.S. Trust, which caters to a select 5,000 depositors, have been treated to private lectures on such subjects as Persian carpets and fine wine.

Banks are discreet in dealing with their superwealthy clientele, or "high-net-worth individuals," as Manufacturers Hanover euphemistically calls them. At Bank of America's Beverly Hills office, the private-banking lounge is tucked behind a door marked only by the number 403. A security guard shoos away the curious. Inside, the office is decorated with a Persian carpet, wing chairs and violet orchids. Says Richard Saalfeld, head of private banking: "We try for an interior look that's a blend between a private residence and a law office."

Many special favors go far beyond the usual borders of banking. Customers at Houston's Medical Center Bank with at least $100,000 in their accounts are welcome to borrow the company airplane, a six-passenger Navajo Chieftain. They are asked only to fill the gas tank. At a customer's request, the bank will dispatch its limousine or arrange for theater tickets. The bank, which is situated at the Texas Medical Center, decided in 1978 to devote itself entirely to doctors and other wealthy customers. Says Chairman Donald Neuenschwander: "You can't be all things to all people. But I can be all things to the people I select." The bank deliberately discourages lower-income consumers by charging unusually high fees. Example: $30 for a bounced check.

Spurning the middle class, however, could be a dangerous long-term strategy. Marilyn Barnewall, a Colorado consultant who helped develop the concept of private banking, advises clients to maintain good relations with their mass-market depositors. After all, today's struggling young professional intends to be tomorrow's high-net-worth individual.