Newly appointed Head of Consumer Banking for Amerant Bank, Howard Levine, is focusing the bank’s consumer efforts on domestic, private banking, and wealth management.
Amerant Bank has had a large and successful book of international clients and the focus now is really to grow our domestic business, Mr. Levine said.
In November 2021, Amerant hired a group of highly experienced private bankers, who have grown the private banking and wealth management group significantly.
“We’re putting a lot of time and effort into the right team and product set,” he said, “and just getting out there in the marketplace and letting everybody know that we’re here and that we’re a player in this space.”
Banking is largely a commodity product, but one thing that Amerant Bank is doing a little bit different is having a wonderful and seasoned staff, Mr. Levine said. The team members in the private banking group, have been in this space for more than 15 years.
“They’re all credit trained, and more than anything, they’re just very responsive,” he added. “What we find from clients is, especially in South Florida, that there’s this tremendous lack of response. You can send an email or a phone call and nobody calls you back. You have to chase them. Our team makes you feel like you’re an important client because you are. We give that white glove service that everybody talks about.”
“They’re performing ahead of expectations and getting traction from their former clients,” he said. “They’re also meeting existing Amerant clients to help create that personal relationship with the bank that they desire and deserve.”
One of the focuses is getting corporate clients to become personal clients, Mr. Levine added. “We’re placing special attention to growing our internal relationships and maximizing them.”
Amerant is also focusing on professional groups, with a hyper-focus on law firms.
“We really want to spend a lot of time working to bring the law firms into the bank,” Mr. Levine said. “We came up with a product set that’s attractive to law firms, both from a lending perspective and a depository product perspective.”
Amerant has also launched a new program to lend on boats, he said. “We’ve never had a maritime lending program, which we do now. Our goal is to build out the private banking area with the right products and services that are representative of the flourishing South Florida market.”
This article was originally published in Miami Today: https://www.miamitodayepaper.com/Miami-Today-07142022-e-Edition/1/
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