COUTTS & CO HOSTS FIRST EVENT FOR MIDLANDS BUSINESSWOMEN

Coutts & Co Chief Executive, Sarah Deaves today hosted the bank’s first lunch for Midlands’ businesswomen as part of a continued commitment to expand the business in this market.

Twenty of the region’s top female entrepreneurs gathered at the Coutts offices on Waterloo Street to hear local entrepreneur Diane Benussi, talk about her experiences in running Benussi & Co, a niche matrimonial practice which she set up over ten years ago. In addition to her ongoing role within the business, she was President of the Birmingham Law Society and Vice Chairman of the friends of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

In greeting the guests, Sarah Deaves spoke of her delight at bringing Coutts’ Women in Business lunches to the Midlands. "The Midlands has a vibrant community of high flying women and with a 25% female client base in the Birmingham office, this is an important growth area for our business.

"Women have been vital to Coutts throughout its 300 year history, initially as both owners and clients, and in more recent times being represented right across our business teams, including my role as first female CEO.

"Today, we do business with over 9,500 of the country’s top entrepreneurs and professionals and have found that they particularly value meeting each other at events like today’s, which we hold on a regular basis across the country."

The West Midlands was last year identified as a hotspot for high net worth women, falling in the top ten of the most popular UK counties for these women to reside. This concentration has increased rapidly over the last five years, with the region experiencing an 18% rise in numbers. Over 34% of the county’s total live in Birmingham.

After the event Diane Benussi commented: "Today’s lunch was a great opportunity to meet some of my peers in Birmingham and share with them my experiences in becoming successful in business from a woman’s perspective. The discussions that ensued during the subsequent lunch gave a fascinating insight in to other people’s individual experiences of being a woman in the business world, which is still predominantly male."

Sarah added; "It is still quite unusual to meet a large number of senior businesswomen at networking events, so we have added this type of forum to give a different "twist" to our programme. It is proving an attractive change for the growing number of businesswomen we are working with, helping develop connections, relationships and more business for all of them."

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For further media information on Coutts contact:

Claire Symonds, Regional PR Manager, Coutts & Co on 0207 957 2650 or mobile 07970 001149 or e-mail claire.symonds@coutts.com

Notes to Editors

• Coutts is the international private banking arm of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is one of the world's largest banking groups.
• Coutts manages the wealth of 90,000 high net worth clients worldwide through a network of offices globally.
• The first Coutts regional office to be opened was Eton in 1961. The most recent new opening was Liverpool at the end of 2003. Today, Coutts has regional offices in Bath, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Eton, Guildford, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Tunbridge Wells & Winchester.
• Coutts offers clients a range of products and services covering sophisticated investment products together with expertise in trust and fiduciary services and UK tax and banking services.
• Coutts has for three years running been awarded ‘Best Use of Long-Only Multi-Manager Structures’ at the Private Asset Management Awards

• Coutts & Co is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered in England No. 36695. Registered office: 440 Strand, London, WC2R 0QS

• Calls may be recorded