The article keeps saying their advantage is their ability to "find solutions other banks can't". I don't know what that means. Exotic loan terms? Collateralizing difficult-to-value assets?
(My mortgage broker, whom I've never met, has sorted out something similar for someone who was self-employed. I got his number by word of mouth.)
- existing 'data structures' like "loans"
- 'infrastructure' such as "positioning that allows carrying the paper"
... and so forth =)
* Banking based on reputation - sometimes you know that someone is trustworthy and good for the money, but the numbers on paper don't show it. Maybe their credit score was dinged for some reason that's easy to explain. Maybe you know their family personally. A small bank might be able to lend to people who are excluded by the big banks' algorithms.
* Big banks are under more scrutiny. That doesn't mean they don't do things with dirty money, but they are being watched more closely (I'm not accusing this particular family of shady banking practices... just noting that there is indeed a large amount of dirty money out there that flows through banks, and some banks are more willing to look the other way).
* As you said, collateralizing weird assets. Some banks might allow a thoroughbred horse as collateral. Most probably don't have the expertise to value these things and so they don't want to allow it as collateral.
It's less likely you go in seeking a loan etc and get told "risk model says no" because you have your assets tied up in a business or other non-standard investments their processes aren't built to understand.
This is available to a similar degree at other private banks.
[0] https://www.barrons.com/articles/SB5000142405311190457170457...
* Wealth management trough tax, trust and estate planning.
* Connections that give access to some forms of private equity. Bankers can arrange meetings and they know people.
But there are enough non-standard things around that also benefit from banking. (No, I'm not talking about crime or bad actors, just people who don't standardize their business for some reason or another.)
Fidelio.
They are more risk averse than normal bank, they trade growth to stability.
Random story - I worked with one of the Hoares many moons ago, in the banking industry. Funny to read this on HN.
Like how I don't have to have health inspectors come investigate my kitchen to make myself lunch.
A family like this definitely has connections. Maybe they collateralize favors that can be given to them and word of those don't get out because it's a tight-knit group.