Code word and silent alarm
For large or unusual payments the Bank calls the client back and asks for the agreed code word. Each client also agrees a second code word for use under pressure. Given instead of the first, it sounds like an ordinary confirmation to anyone listening, but the Bank knows at once that the client is in danger: the payment does not leave the Bank, and the agreed emergency protocol starts immediately. With the client’s prior consent, the call is also analysed for signs of stress in the voice. The analysis is an additional signal that can raise the alarm on its own account; it never replaces the code word.
A second look before you pay
Before a large payment goes to a new recipient, the Bank checks the invoice, the recipient and the account details on request. Forged invoices, changed bank details and calls from a voice that only sounds like a partner are among the most expensive frauds there are; most banks execute and look later. We look first.
Early warning about yourself
We watch, on the client’s behalf, the sanctions lists, the risk databases that banks consult, the press and known data leaks. If the client’s name appears, the client hears it from us, before other banks or counterparties react.
Correction of the record
Much of what appears is wrong: a namesake on a sanctions list, a closed case still shown as open, a company confused with another, a defamatory article. Through admitted lawyers we have such entries corrected: clarification files that other banks’ compliance departments accept, correction requests to the database providers, delisting proceedings before the authority or court concerned, removal from search results where data-protection law grants it, and action against untrue publications. We correct what is false, outdated or unlawfully published. We do not conceal what is true, and a person lawfully subject to sanctions is someone the Bank must not assist.
If you cannot act
Sealed instructions held by the Bank, named persons of trust and a release of funds under the four-eyes principle, for the day the client is missing, held or unable to decide. Most families discover only in an emergency that nobody can reach the accounts.
A plan B
A second residence or citizenship, an account already funded in another jurisdiction, precious metals in a vault abroad and a documented route out: prepared in calm times, so that it is ready when times are not.
Document vault
Originals of wills, deeds and certificates kept safely, with secure copies of passports and key documents retrievable anywhere in the world when they are lost or needed at short notice.
Protection of elderly relatives
With the elderly client’s consent, unusual payments trigger a call to a person of trust the client has named. It protects against telephone fraud, romance scams and those who court an inheritance.
A family code word against deepfakes
A voice or a face on a screen can now be faked convincingly. A code word agreed within the family and with its assistants, with a short briefing, stops the call that claims a child has had an accident and money must be sent at once.
Training for the family
Briefings on travel behaviour for children studying abroad, prevention of kidnapping for principals, and the habits that keep a family’s movements out of public view.
Authentication before you buy
Art, watches, jewellery and collectibles examined by independent specialists before purchase: provenance, title, condition and authenticity, so that the price paid buys what it claims to.
Risk briefings
Briefings by specialist analysts on the countries where the family lives, travels or invests: capital controls, sanctions, expropriation, unrest, and what they mean for the family’s plans.
Observant travel and living
Kosher and halal arrangements, Sabbath-compatible travel and accommodation, and the many details that let observant families travel as they live.
