Best private bank in Latin America

Last year was uniquely challenging and one which reinforced Itaú’s commitment to serving clients and looking after employees, as well as the bank’s impact on wider society. “The pandemic affected everyone, and we at Itaú understood that our role went beyond clients and teams. We have a responsibility to society,” says Felipe Sampaio Nabuco, head of Itaú Private Bank in Brazil. “We reaffirmed our commitment to Brazil by creating ‘Todos pela Saúde’ (All for Health), an alliance of professionals working to fight the coronavirus in our country and endowing it with a historic donation of more than 1.2bn reais ($217m).” Thanks to its strong technology platform, service to clients was not severely affected during the pandemic, with the bank being able to reorganise teams and reprioritise projects. “But after a few weeks, we came to understand that what mattered the most to clients at that moment was attention, proximity and being taken care of – even if it was done in a remote way,” he explains. “So we redirected our technological efforts to making our teams’ day-to-day work easier, which freed up more of their time for engaging with clients. We have also significantly expanded our front-line team in recent months, which has enabled us to give even more time to our clients.” A major milestone for Itaú in 2020 was the launch of the Amazon Plan, developed in partnership with Bradesco and Santander, which has the objective of promoting the sustainable development of the Amazon region, a move that further cements the bank’s commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. “We have developed an ESG product platform based on careful curation and the policies that have always guided our efforts to offer the best investment options to our clients. We now have more than 70 ESG products available across the Brazilian and global markets and across multiple asset classes, ranging from corporate bonds to sustainable bonds,” Mr Nabuco adds. PG