Julius Baer is about to accelerate its expansion in Asia and hire the necessary bankers. Switzerland in turn is in for a much rougher ride, the bank's CEO believes.
Following the completion of the integration of the private-banking business of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Boris Collardi announced the beginning of an period of organic growth. The CEO of Julius Baer has now given further details about what that will mean for the Asia unit of his bank.
«We are hiring over 100 relationship managers, net, and over half of that will be in Asia,» Collardi told the «Financial Times» (paywall). Ten of the client advisers Julius Baer already has appointed, signing them from a large U.S. bank.
Asians Keeping Assets in Asia
Collardi didn't say whether the new recruits joined from J.P. Morgan, which has cut jobs in Asian private banking.
But he left little doubt about the future of banking in Switzerland. Nine out of 10 Asian customers at Julius Baer kept their accounts in Singapore or Hong Kong. The flow of money to Switzerland has stopped. «The top private banks are all onshore in Asia,» he concluded.
