By JOHN G. EDWARDS

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A private banking customer of SouthwestUSA Bank ran out of gasoline while pulling his boat to Lake Mead with a new pickup truck. The bank customer was new to Southern Nevada and didn't know many people here.

So he called his private banker for help, and she brought him a can of fuel.

Nonfinancial services like that are becoming more common as competition increases among private bankers in Southern Nevada. It doesn't hurt to have a personal relationship with a client who is watching his investment holdings shrink during the worst bear market in decades and wondering what he is getting for the investment management fees he's paying.

Russell Price, director of private banking at Nevada State Bank, said his institution is retaining most of its wealth management clients. He, too, tries to establish personal bonds with clients.

One customer was a triathlete. Soon Price was competing in triathlons that combine swimming, bicycling and running. Price now routinely does banking with two different clients during bike rides.

"I put a very high emphasis on relationships," Price said.

So do the managers at Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo, which opened its first bank and express service office in Northern Nevada in 1860, recently rescued an elderly client who was having trouble getting an Austrian hotel to accept her Bank of America credit card.

The private bank persuaded the hotel to accept her Wells Fargo card so she could get a room for the night, said Robert Hoffman, Wells Fargo regional manager and senior vice president of wealth management.

Little touches like that help as private bank competitors become more numerous in Southern Nevada.

The list of new private banks in Southern Nevada has grown long in recent years.

Chicago-based Northern Trust, which traces its history back to 1889, established operations in Las Vegas seven years ago.

In 2003, Western Alliance Bancorporation, the Las Vegas-based holding company for Bank of Nevada as well as banks in Arizona and California, acquired Premier Trust and Miller/Russell & Associates. The acquired firms provide trust services and wealth management services to wealthy clients.

City National Corp., which operates Beverly Hills, Calif.'s bank to the stars, acquired Business Bank of Las Vegas in 2007 and added private banking services to its menu of services here.

Later that year, Executive Vice President Dallas Haun, a key private bank executive at City National, left to become chief executive officer at Nevada State Bank.

These relative newcomers compete with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, US Bank, Marshall and Ilsley Bank and the Bank of New York Mellon in Southern Nevada.

"The market is increasingly crowded, but everybody has a slightly different approach," said Bob Glaser, senior vice president and manager of private client services for City National in Nevada.

City National counted Frank Sinatra as a customer during the 1950s. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has disclosed that he banks at City National.