Julius Baer, which regards Asia
as its second home market, is to collaborate with Australia-based Macquarie
Group to provide wealth management services in the Asia-Pacific region.

Under the deal announced today, Julius Baer will refer
clients’ investment banking transactions to Macquarie, while Macquarie
will refer clients who require private banking services to the Swiss bank. More
of Macquarie’s investment banking products will be available to Julius Baer’s
clients in Asia under Julius Baer’s open
product platform.

Additionally, Macquarie’s
Asian private wealth business will be transferred to Julius Baer. Macquarie
Private Wealth Asia has offices in Singapore
and Hong Kong and manages total client assets
of around $1 billion, according to a statement issued by the banks.

“This is another important step to expand Julius Baer’s
footprint in the world’s most important growth region, underlining our
commitment to Asia as our second home market.
I am convinced that the cooperation will be highly beneficial for both partners
and our clients,” Boris Collardi, chief executive of Julius Baer, said.

The collaboration agreement comes at a time when Julius
Baer, a “pure play” private bank in Switzerland,
has been expanding its footprint in Asia. The
deal with Macquarie may inspire imitators
among those wealth management firms which do not have investment banking
capacity.

Recently, Julius Baer was granted a representative office
licence in Shanghai
by the China Banking Regulatory Commission and says it is the only private bank
to hold a QFII licence by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

For its part, Macquarie has
around 10,000 staff in 26 locations across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Asia expansion at Julius Baer comes in contrast to its
pullback from providing offshore banking services in the US, a country that has
been intensifying pressure against offshore banking from Switzerland and other
nations. Yesterday, it was reported that two former Julius Baer employees have
been indicted in New York
on charges of selling tax evasion services to US citizens.