Spear’s Review

Nicholas Dudley-Hammatt has carved out what he describes as a rare position at HSBC Private Bank. Promoted to managing director in 2026, he says he is one of the only people at that level within the bank’s UK HNW business who still looks after clients directly – a deliberately hybrid role that keeps him close to the relationships that define the work. ‘My job is split in two,’ he explains. ‘I look after a select number of very high-value clients to our bank, and support our other private bankers with strategic input on some of their relationships.’

His work spans investments, wealth planning and lending, extending at the higher end into family governance and legacy. As the next generation of longstanding client families comes of age, that dimension is growing. Drawing on HSBC’s virtual family office model, he brings in specialists to advise on everything from next-generation education to long-term wealth transfer. 

In a landscape that has increasingly been shaped by pandemics, conflicts and interest rate volatility, he says, the value of a trusted adviser has never been clearer: ‘The 2020s have really increased the value of advisers like us to our clients.’