How to get the royal treatment from banks

Do you want banks to roll out the red carpet? Well, if you're rich, they'll be more than happy to do it for you.

Private banks are going out of their way to pamper their high net worth clients. Following in the footsteps of airports and hotels, the private banking divisions of banks such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have created luxury VIP lounges in some of their branches,reports Business Standard. And these are not just for meetingbank officials; customers can also use these lounges for personal meetings.

The well-heeled rarely visit banks (when was the last time you saw Mukesh Ambani at the bank?) and when they do, they like to conduct their transactions in completely privacy.

[caption id="attachment_334166" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="In addition to meetings with the banks, these VIP customers can use the lounge for their personal meetings as well. Reuters"][/caption]

With the rising number of wealthy individuals in non-metro cities, banks are setting up such lounges in branches at smaller towns and cities. For instance, ICICI Bank has lounges in its branches in Bhopal, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mohali, Pune and Surat, the BS report said.

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Ordinary customers need not fret, though. Banks are offering quite a few benefits to them as well. ICICI Bank branches, for example, remain open till 8 pm to provide for customers who work late. An earlier Economic Times report suggested that it also lets users bank via Facebook with the help of an application launched on the social networking site.

According to management consultancy firm, Boston Consulting Group, there were 134,000 millionaire households in 2011. The number of ultra high networth individuals or UHNI (with financial wealth in excess of Rs 550 crore) rose to 278 in 2011 from 241.

The report titled "Global Wealth 2012: Battle to regain strength" private wealth is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 19 percent over the next 4 years to 2016. This is faster than the average 4 to 5 percent global growth forecast.