Despite some of the problems with legacy offshore business, Swiss banks still operate in the US, and a Geneva-based firm has just set up shop in California.

A subsidiary of Switzerland’s private bank REYL & Cie, REYL Overseas, said today it has opened its first branch in Santa Barbara, CA, in notable contrast to a recent pattern of banks from the Alpine state cutting offshore services to US clients.

The new business will be managed by Simon Clark and registered as an investment advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“REYL Overseas now has a foothold in the American market, one of the strategic development priorities of the REYL Group,” the firm said.

Outlining its strategy, REYL & Cie said it intends to exploit the entrepreneurial wealth of the US West Coast and entry point for Asia that is placed in such fields such as Silicon Valley.

The Westward shift by a Swiss bank contrasts with recent moves by Swiss firms to shut down offshore accounts that had been provided for wealthy Americans amid heavy pressure by US authorities to stamp out offshore tax evasion. Even so, Switzerland’s – the world’s, in fact – largest wealth manager (UBS), for example, operates profitably in the Americas.

REYL & Cie is, by the standards of some venerable private banks headquartered in Geneva, relatively young, having been founded in 1973; it developed services targeted at North American clients in October 2011.  

Roger Groebli, chief executive of REYL Overseas, said the differentiation value of REYL & Cie is “knowing how to build a diversified offer[ing] whose strengths are as much about wealth management as corporate advisory and structuring or private office.”

In June, media reports said the bank intended to expand internationally, including the US and Asia (as reported by Family Wealth Report here.)