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Alan Bennalick, Butterfield’s head of corporate and private banking for the Channel Islands, tells Emily Moore about the group’s ambitious plans to grow the firm’s Jersey team and book
HAVING left school with little idea about what he wanted to do, Alan Bennalick says that he has been “incredibly lucky” to have “stumbled into a career that has been really good” for him.
Now leading Butterfield’s corporate and private banking team across both Jersey and Guernsey, Alan reflects on the opportunities the role has brought him.
“It has taken me to places that I never thought I would go to and has introduced me to people who I never imagined I would meet,” he explained.
Having worked in “all areas of the banking spectrum”, Guernsey-born Alan says he is “very fortunate” to be leading the group’s corporate and private banking teams in jurisdictions where he says Butterfield has an “ambitious growth strategy”.
“The international banking space is fascinating because you meet so many people who have made their own money and have such interesting stories to tell,” he said. “And one of the joys of working in the financial services industry in the Channel Islands is that you meet so many people and the casual connections that form from those meetings can really enhance the service you can offer clients.”
This, he adds, has been particularly true since Butterfield’s Jersey operation moved into the International Finance Centre.
“To be based here, with our name above the door, looking across to our clients in the heart of the financial services area is great, and has been a real lift for all the team,” he said. “We really feel that we have arrived now and are in a great position to deliver the group’s growth strategy.”
Having worked in a number of financial services businesses before joining Butterfield, Alan says that being part of such a growth-focused organisation is “really energising and exciting”.
“The growth ambition for the group is focused on the Channel Islands, which is great because you are trusted with additional resources and trusted to launch new products and get involved in new segments,” he said.
And those growth ambitions, he says, are based on a solid foundation.
“Butterfield already had a strong presence in the Guernsey corporate sector and with the acquisition of ABN, we became a really big player servicing trust companies, fund administrators and wealth managers across the Channel Islands.
“Particularly exciting for me is that Butterfield is passionate about expanding its offering across the board, including servicing local resident clients with mortgages, savings accounts and credit cards.
“It was a real breath of fresh air to join Butterfield and, for the past six years, all we have done is progress and talk about how we continue to grow all the segments of the business, an outlook which has given the whole team a real boost.”
“In Guernsey, we are already quite mature and have a decent market share, whereas in Jersey, we have a smaller portion of the market and therefore a huge amount to go after. That’s why my brief is to grow the team and grow the corporate book by understanding what it is that those clients need.”
Reflecting on that “brilliant remit”, Alan also expresses his confidence that Butterfield is “the solution” that corporate clients need.
“The message we hear from both individuals and industry bodies is that it is very hard to find banking and custody solutions,” he said. “Whether people are looking for personal banking solutions or products for their corporate business or clients, they are struggling and, when they do find something suitable, they are hammered with fees and almost punished for wanting to find a solution.
“I believe that Butterfield is the solution to that challenge, and that we offer a viable alternative to the traditional players. We have all the tools within the bank to provide the solutions that people need, and I think the intermediaries who use Butterfield to support their clients also believe that we offer the solution they have been looking for.
“The clients we’re dealing with have complex, often multijurisdictional, needs and for the good of the bank, the client and the Island, you have to do your job properly, which means that onboarding and monitoring clients is hard. That could be the reason why banks have either withdrawn from that part of the industry or imposed some hefty fees.”
While Butterfield faces many of the same challenges as any other entity offering banking solutions, Alan says that the team’s approach is different.
“I prefer to look at ways of making our relationship mutually beneficial,” he explained. “What else, for example, does that client need? We know they need a bank account but do they have custody elsewhere? Are there other relationships we can look at? By taking a holistic approach, we can build a long-term relationship which is more interesting for both parties.”
And this is where Alan feels Butterfield can make significant strides in Jersey.
“I don’t think people realise quite how extensive our range of services is,” he said. “That’s why we need to get out there and explain that we can take away a lot of people’s pain points. If you take custody, for example, we have a very strong offering, which is serviced by teams sitting in the Channel Islands.
“That is very rare today and it gives us control over the quality and delivery of the service. Similarly, we have a very strong lending offer. While we have become well known for that on the retail side, having picked up more than £300m of Channel Island mortgages since launching the product three years ago, we are perhaps less well known for our corporate lending, something for which we have a real appetite.”
While Alan is Guernsey-born and still based in that island, he makes no secret of the fact that he wants the amount of Jersey business to outstrip that of Guernsey.
“Based on the size and scale of the Jersey industry, our book here should be twice the size of Guernsey’s,” he explained. “When we attend Jersey Finance events and hear their ambitions for the growth of the Jersey market, there is no reason that we shouldn’t achieve that, because we are a solution to the struggles people are experiencing.
“It is great when a fiduciary wins a new trust structure or an administrator helps to launch a new fund but if they cannot find the banking solutions to facilitate that, it is a real grind on their time and a drag both on their growth and that of the jurisdiction.
“Some of those intermediaries are looking at digital platforms or providers from outside the Island to provide the solutions they need, but such offerings are often one-dimensional. We offer a fully functioning, well matured corporate offering that will help facilitate and speed up delivery to their clients. We just need to make sure they know about us.”
But Alan and the Butterfield team in the Channel Islands are not just focused on promoting their services. Equally importantly, he says, is the desire to listen to the market and understand where there are gaps and frustrations.
“We engage with different segments of the business community to see where they need us,” he said. “As a result of that feedback, we have launched a Business Saver account and a corporate credit card and we are now looking at what we can do next, and how quickly we can offer more services to local businesses.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, the message that we are hearing is that these businesses do need another provider, and one which is focused on supporting the local community, something which sits very much at the heart of Butterfield’s ethos.
“Our focus over the past six years has been to expand into new segments, launch new products and identify opportunities for growth – and there are so many, both in the corporate sector and on the business banking side.
“That is tremendously exciting, and I don’t think there are any other organisations which offer quite the same opportunity or have such a strong appetite to expand in a way which really focuses on those underserviced areas and on finding solutions for clients. The growth potential is tremendous, and the really exciting thing is that this is just the start.”
- Credit cards are only available to over-18s and residents of the Channel Islands. Credit cards will be issued from Butterfield Bank (Channel Islands) Limited.
Butterfield Bank (Channel Islands) Limited (BBCIL) acting through its Jersey branch (Butterfield Bank (Channel Islands) Limited, Jersey Branch) under the registered business name Butterfield Bank Jersey is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission to conduct deposit-taking business under the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991 (as amended). Address: IFC6, IFC Jersey, St Helier, Jersey JE3 3BZ. Company registration number 124784 and participant in the Jersey Bank Depositors Compensation Scheme, the Scheme offers protection for eligible deposits of up to £50,000. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any 5 year period. Details: gov.je/dcs. T&Cs apply and copies of the latest audited accounts are available.
