Summary
The Swiss Private Banking industry must accept the changed business landscape and look at its whole business model in the light of the changed circumstances, not simply try to attract a new client base to their old model.
Analysis
For the Swiss Private Banking industry the move to look downmarket must be part of a fundamental review of the business model but it requires the industry to accept that the business landscape has changed radically in the last two years. However the proposals by the Swiss Bankers Association to create a Swiss withholding tax as reported in New York Times of 20th September 2009 in an effort to retain client privacy, on the one hand harks back to an era of private banking which is fast disappearing and on the other hand illuminates the fact that, without the mystical privacy offered by Swiss Banks many of the private banking offerings from the Swiss Banking Industry do not stand up to comparison on the global stage both in investment performance and cost terms. It’s not just about finding a new and less wealthy client. The winners will be those banks which quickly accept the changed environment, invest in people and technology which can add value to a relationship and control costs.
This author consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
