• September 5, 2001

LONDON (Reuters) - The banker to Britain's Queen Elizabeth, Coutts & Co, is to advertise for the first time in its 309-year history, a spokeswoman for the private bank said on Monday. Coutts, which once held the accounts of Charles Dickens and Lord Byron, insisted it was not moving downmarket, saying even the rich and famous feel the pinch of global recession. Customers are required to hold disposable funds of 500,000 pounds ($730,000) to open an account.

"We really believe our clients are not going to think this is going downmarket," said spokeswoman Julie Cooper. "This is not saying come to Coutts, anyone can join Coutts. It is targeting key publications."

The advertising campaign, to start next Tuesday, will appear in a selection of upmarket magazines and newspapers including the Financial Times, Harpers & Queen and Country Life. The adverts will expound the virtues of the private bank's investment management approach.

"It's very much just to raise the profile of what we are doing on the investment management side," Cooper said. But others are concerned the more populist approach could upset some investors. "I hope our clients won't choke on their cornflakes," Coutts Chief Executive Andrew Fisher told the Daily Telegraph. "If we were simply saying anybody can join Coutts, they would be quite rightly shocked."

Coutts, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, has 35 billion pounds in total client assets under management.