Julius Baer Reiterates Asian Growth Ambitions

Tom Burroughes

26 April 2016

The chief executive of Julius Baer has reasserted the bank’s determination to treat Asia as its second home market, a stance that stands in contrast to that of some other Western banks, which are choosing to retreat from the region.

Boris Collardi, when interviewed by the Financial Times, said the Zurich-listed bank intends to hire at least 50 more relationship managers in the region.

Reflecting on the more challenging global climate for Swiss banks since the Alpine state’s bank secrecy laws eroded, Collardi was quoted as saying: “We couldn’t sit here and wait for clients to come — we needed to go out, to invest in Europe, Asia, Latin America. In 2006, we didn’t have any Asia. Today, we have more than 1,200 people…We exported, refreshed, revitalised.”

Among recent hires – as reported by this publication – has been that of Torsten Linke, Credit Suisse’s former Indonesia market leader. Linke was appointed head of private banking for South East Asia and Singapore manager in January. The firm also appointed Credit Suisse’s former market leader for China and Taiwan, David Shick, as its new head of private banking for greater China.

In January, Julius Baer created a new division to bolster its investment management arm, bringing in a former investment chief from Pictet to lead it. The new division is called Investment Management and is led by Yves Henri Bonzon. The IM division complements the Investment Solutions Group , an existing division headed by Burkhard Varnholt. He and Bonzon are co-CIOs.

Collardi went on to say to the FT: “We are hiring over 100 relationship managers, net, and over half of that will be in Asia.”

Collardi said Asian wealth was increasingly being kept in Asia, rather than sent back to Switzerland. “Ninety-five per cent of all our Asian clients have accounts in Singapore and Hong Kong,” he said.

Some Western banks, however, have retreated from the Asian market. A few weeks ago, Barclays ended media speculation by saying it was selling its private banking businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong to OCBC, the Singapore-headquartered banking group. Over two years ago, Societe Generale sold its Asian private bank to Singapore-headquartered DBS. Banque Internationale a Luxembourg has shut its Singapore office. High costs and the need to achieve sufficient mass and scale have meant some firms have decided the Asian market, while a large one, can be too expensive. By contrast, firms such as BNP Paribas and UBS continue to build teams in Asia. Geneva-headquartered Union Bancaire Privée has also bolstered its Asian presence by buying the non-UK private banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland last year.