Expansion And New Offerings Drive Growth: With organic asset growth proving more elusive, M&A cranks up for private banks in Latin America.
Amid a challenging year for pure asset growth in the region, private banks across Latin America shifted their focus toward scale and regional repositioning as part of their long-term strategies.
Against a volatile backdrop, major players seized the moment to expand their footprint across local borders and offer wealthy clients greater access to global markets.
Many also broadened their value propositions, rolling out digitally integrated family-office services, private-credit strategies, and AI-enhanced advisory solutions alongside traditional discretionary mandates. This diversification, combined with the efficiencies gained through consolidation, enabled them to serve a broader range of clients with greater depth and sophistication.
In this evolving landscape, success belonged to the institutions that viewed consolidation not solely as expansion but as an opportunity to strengthen relationships, streamline execution, and enhance regional capabilities.
Best Private Bank: BTG Pactual Wealth Management
Latin America’s largest private bank is also its fastest growing one.
As of March 2025, BTG Pactual’s Wealth Management assets under management reached a record $175 billion, a 15.9% increase year-over-year and 56% growth over two years.
Net new money totaled $34.1 billion in the period, while revenues rose to $691 million, up 5% from the previous year.
In Brazil alone—the firm’s core market—AUM reached $163 billion, with $33.3 billion in net new money. A sharp focus on the ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth segments fueled BTG’s momentum. Continued integration between its investment banking and wealth units, as well as inorganic growth through a series of M&A, supported the firm.
Over the past year, the Brazilian behemoth executed four major acquisitions. Two are in Brazil, Julius Baer Brasil’s family office business ($11 billion AUM) and JGP Wealth Management ($3.4 billion AUM), and two are in the United States, Greytown Advisors ($1 billion AUM) in Miami and M.Y. Safra Bank ($391 million AUM) in New York.
Together, these moves positioned BTG as Brazil’s largest multifamily office in the region, now managing approximately $22 billion in this segment alone.
Best Private Bank For Sustainable Investing: Itaú Private Bank
Sustainability is more than just part of Itaú Private Bank’s offering; it’s a core mission that runs through the bank’s entire operation. Its parent company, Itaú Unibanco, has an ambitious plan to mobilize R$1 trillion (~$200 billion) in sustainable finance by 2030, and more than $120 billion of that had been deployed as of late 2024, with private banking playing a central role.
Within its Responsible Investment platform, fully integrated within the private bank’s offerings, Itaú promotes ESG factors through proprietary methodologies and manages ESG-themed strategies such as the Active Fix ESG Horizon Fund, focused on Amazon-region investments.
As a result of those holistic efforts, the Brazilian giant has continuously expanded its product set for private-bank clients, including green, social, and sustainability-linked bonds, as well as ESG-themed mutual funds and ETFs. In 2024, the firm structured $2.7 billion in ESG bond issuance across 30 operations, recording a massive 170% year-on-year increase in the space.
In March 2025, Itaú BBA teamed with International Finance Corporation and IDB Invest on a $280 million biodiversity and social bond, offering high-impact access to private wealth clients.
Best Private Bank Digital Solutions For Clients: Bradesco Global Private Bank
Despite its already award-winning suite of digital offerings, Bradesco Global Private Bank continued to make significant progress in 2025, deepening the integration of data intelligence and automation across its client experience.
Currently, more than 90% of all private-bank transactions are executed digitally, supported by higher client satisfaction scores and a 10-point increase in NPS among relationship-banking clients.
These results stem from the breadth and continuous evolution of the bank’s digital ecosystem, strengthened by sustained investment in artificial intelligence. The bank’s flagship BIA AI virtual assistant and components of Bradesco’s proprietary generative AI Bridge platform are now embedded within the private-bank environment. They assist with reporting, document handling, and advisor support—enhancing responsiveness and personalization while preserving the bank’s hallmark of direct client engagement.
The private-bank infrastructure also benefits from the institution’s AI-driven security and fraud-monitoring frameworks, ensuring stability and trust across all digital channels.
