2018 has turned out to be a challenging year for a number of private banks and wealth managers in terms of revenue and profit growth. 

This wasn’t the case at RBS, however, where income and operating profits increased by 14.3 percent and by 111.9 percent respectively to £775 million and £303 million. 

Indeed, although a number of firms have still to report there is a good probability that RBS’ private banking operation, which encapsulates Coutts and Edinburgh-based Adam & Co, could turn out to be the most profitable of all the big wealth management firms operating around the world. 

Th...