Seeking the Wealthy in Russia

Where should a wealth management firm go looking for clients in Europe east of Switzerland?

A report by a London-based firm, Scorpio Partnership, came up with the obvious answer: Russia. There are so many "high net worths," as the industry parlance has it, in the country that they control liquid assets of as much as $350 billion about two-thirds of Russia's gross domestic product. That is more than twice the assets of such individuals in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic combined. That level of cash is drawing the interest of the world's wealth managers, "both in an onshore and offshore context," the report found. Bankers are going as far as Siberia looking for clients, according to Bloomberg News. Credit Suisse opened a private banking office in St. Petersburg in May, in addition to one in Moscow.

Of course, not all the Russian billionaires need those offices. Roman Abramovich, Russia's richest man, spends most of his time in Britain since buying London's Chelsea soccer team. The man who held that title before him, the Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving a nine-year prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion.