No Millionaires At This Bank As It Only Serves Billionaires

A new branch of the International Bank Vaults (IBV), a company providing bank vaults and personal asset protection services for the rich will be opened in London this week.

This new branch is in a 120-year-old mansion next to the Dorchester hotel in the Park Lane area of London. For your information, this is not a normal bank.

According to Sean Hoey, the managing director of the branch, this bank doesn’t serve millionaires but only billionaires. The services might be more expensive compared to other companies. But in return, IBV provides the safest vaults in London and in the world. With IBV, their customers are the kings and queens.

At IBV, the cheapest safety vault is 5cm tall, 15 cm wide and 40cm deep with a renting price of 600 pounds or Rs 56,197. Meanwhile, a similar vault at Metro Bank, UK’s biggest safety vault provider costs only 240 pounds or Rs 22,476.

Hoey states that the small vault at IBV can contain some jewelry and some gold bars since the vault is only a little bit bigger than a smartphone. If the customer has more to store, they can rent a bigger vault. It is even possible for them to rent a whole room here at 2.5 million pounds or 23.4 crore for one year. In fact, IBV already has some customers renting a whole room like that.

IBV owned by South African millionaire Ashok Sewnarain explained the reason why it decided to open a new branch in London. It was because of the increase in the demand of the rich to rent safety vaults to protect their assets.

Hoey said that the rich were also concerned about the effects of global warming and tended to keep gold instead of cash because some banks around the world had already been charging a higher fee for cash deposits.

The London branch is said to bring to customers a feeling of an exclusive club for the upper class rather than a bank. IBV also provides pick-up service using Rolls-Royce for customers. Drivers need to have experience and have been trained to serve this type of customer.

Upon arriving, two employees will take the customer to their vault for a fingerprint and retinal scan. The basement of the bank has armored walls, ceilings, and floors to prevent intrusion from outside. Besides London, IBV has three more branches in South Africa, Zurich, and Dubai.

Hoey stated that no one could know what is inside the customers’ vaults and their privacy is ensured to the maximum level. However, from his experience working here, most of the assets are jewelry, watch collections, gold bars, coins, documents, artworks, and family photos.

Since IBV doesn’t want to get involved with money laundering or illegal activities, the company will evaluate the customers before providing them its services. Most of its customers are recommended by private banks but a revaluation is still conducted. If there is any doubt in the origin of their assets, IBV will refuse to serve them.

IBV’s potential customers are foreign billionaires, mostly from Russia, China, and the Middle East. These billionaires often have properties in London and come here every summer. They come to IBV to make sure that their valuable assets are kept safe.