A UK regional CEO sixteen years into a Singapore posting was putting a UK base in place ahead of an eventual return inside a five-year arc. The structural answer was a private bank purchase mortgage at 60% LTV against a £5.5 million St George’s Hill country house, with a multi-currency facility and an AUM relationship sitting inside the same arrangement.
Background
The client was a UK-born senior executive in his mid-fifties, sixteen years in Singapore as the Asia-Pacific regional CEO at an international group. Compensation comprised SGD base salary, annual bonus, multi-year deferred compensation vesting through the role’s runway, and vested equity from earlier cycles. He was married, with adult children straddling school and university, both UK-bound.
The household had decided to put a UK base in place now, ahead of an eventual return inside a five-year arc. The property was a £5.5 million country house in St George’s Hill, freehold. The brief came across because the household had Singapore private banking but no UK private bank introducer, and the structure of the case required one.
What needed to happen
The brief was a private bank purchase mortgage at 60% LTV: a £3.3 million loan against £5.5 million, interest-only, five-year fix, with a personal guarantee as a foundational feature. The arrangement needed to include an AUM relationship of £4 to £5 million on the bank’s wealth platform, and a multi-currency facility allowing staged SGD-to-GBP conversion across the runway.
The complication was the combination. A non-resident borrower with a thin recent UK file after sixteen years offshore. Income across SGD base, deferred compensation, and vested equity that high-street panels do not consistently recognise. A £5.5 million country house sitting in a niche valuation segment. And SGD-to-GBP exposure on a £2.2 million deposit and ongoing servicing. The high-street panel was not in the conversation.
How we worked the case
Bank introducer selection was the first piece of work, and on private bank lending it is the work. Private bank lending is a relationship arrangement, not a panel exercise: the working set of UK-acceptable private banks for a non-resident HNW borrower with a multi-currency facility and an AUM placement at this size is small and individually known. The shortlist was matched to the client’s profile before the introduction was made.
The income evidence pack was built across three components before introduction. SGD base salary through Singapore payslips and tax filings, multi-year deferred compensation through scheme documents and vesting schedules, and vested equity through brokerage statements. Private banks recognise these in ways the high-street does not, but the documentation has to be built to bank standards before the case lands on the desk.
The multi-currency facility was the structural answer to the FX question. The loan was sized through the bank’s FX desk; the household could draw and service in either currency, with staged SGD-to-GBP conversion across the runway and the deposit cleared at a pre-agreed price. Currency exposure became a feature of the arrangement, not a tactical question to revisit each quarter.
Expert Insight: “Private bank lending is a relationship product. The loan, the AUM placement, and the FX strategy sit inside one conversation, not three, and the broker’s value is matching the right bank to the right client and presenting the whole picture from day one, before the introduction is made.” Justin Whitelock, Founder of Mortgage London
Outcome
Completion landed inside the brief, with a UK-acceptable private bank at 60% LTV, multi-currency facility live, AUM placement effected, and the deposit cleared at the pre-agreed FX price. The wider tax position around the structure had been settled with the household’s tax adviser before introduction. For the family, the practical outcome was a UK base in place ahead of an eventual return five years out, acquired without liquidating the household’s investment portfolio.
Key takeaways
- Private bank lending is a relationship product. The loan, the AUM placement, and the FX strategy sit inside one conversation, and the value of the work is in matching the right bank to the right client before the introduction is made.
- A multi-currency facility turns SGD-to-GBP exposure from a tactical question into a structural feature of the loan, with the bank’s FX desk inside the same arrangement rather than running alongside it.
- Income across base salary, deferred compensation, and vested equity is recognised by the private bank market where the documentation is prepared to bank standards before the case lands on the desk.