The historic Rothschild global financial organization is aiming for a more balanced split between its key business units, looking to raise the profit contribution from its Zurich-based private bank to 40 per cent of overall profit from about 25 per cent now, Dow Jones reports.

The private bank cut costs in 2010 to bolster profit by 20 per cent. However, managed assets stayed virtually unchanged at SFr12.8 billion ($15.24 billion) - despite new client money of SFr714 million - due to the rising franc against sterling, euro and the dollar.

Rothschild is preparing a modest push into Hong Kong and Singapore through two asset-management firms of up to 15 employees each, but will book the client transactions in Europe, Rothschild private bank head Veit de Maddalena was quoted saying at a recent media briefing.

Meanwhile, established operations in Switzerland will begin targeting a wealthier segment of client, preferably with more than SFr5 million in assets to bank with Rothschild, de Maddalena said. Previously, as with most private banks, Rothschild accepted clients with SFr1 million and more.

Rothschild wants to bolster funds in the UK and Germany, where it manages SFr4 billion and SFr1 billion, respectively, to at least SFr5 billion each before expanding further outside Switzerland.

Later, a spokesperson for Rothschild told WealthBriefing: "The goal is to grow the business sustainably - high single-digit growth in net new assets. At the end of 2010, Rothschild realigned the client-facing side of the wealth management business into three main units: Onshore, International and Emerging Markets."

"Underpinning the strategy is an increased focus on core markets. This includes strengthening onshore in the UK, Switzerland and Germany by recruiting 20 new senior client relationship managers in these core
markets in the next five years. There is also an additional focus on the investment engine, which has more than doubled in size to over 50 people since 2007, and into which investment will continue," the spokesperson continued. 

"This increased focus also means reducing the number of markets the business operates in overall thereby reducing complexity, particularly in international markets where increased regulation is a concern. Another key thing underpinning the strategy is the introduction of the Avaloq system [as reported by this publication] is already underway. This will provide one system for the whole business across all markets, including
Asia," the spokesperson added.