For the first time in years, the local banking sector dares to venture abroad again to extol the advantages of the Swiss financial centre – receiving robust support from the cabinet. What is it about?

Herbert Scheidt, a high ranking delegation of Swiss banking representatives, led by the Finance Minister Ueli Maurer, is visiting Asia’s leading financial centres next week. Is this the beginning of a new offensive in Swiss banking?

The trip is a milestone in the efforts of the Swiss Bankers Association and the country to better position the Swiss financial centre abroad. Particularly in a region like Asia where business and politics are closely connected, it is important to show that our banking sector has a strong relationship of trust with the government and the authorities.

It is important that initiatives to strengthen the Swiss financial sector are long term in nature for the effect to be sustainable.

How big is this delegation and who is taking part in it?

Representatives of the entire financial centre are included in the delegation. On the one hand, we have representatives from the ranks of the private banks, the large Swiss banks and the cantonal banks. Representatives of globally active Swiss insurers are also part of the delegation.

«In this way we are demonstrating great unity in our external appearance»

In addition, the chairman of the board and CEO of the SIX Group are making the trip to Asia, as well as the head of the Swiss Funds and Asset Management Association. In this way, we are demonstrating great unity across the sector in our external appearance.

What are the aims of the visits to Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong?

With its outstanding attributes, Switzerland possesses one of the best, most secure and competitive financial centres in the world. We want to show what value Swiss banks can offer clients and investors in the Asian market, as well in the domestic market.

«We have close ties with Singapore»

The Swiss financial centre is an attractive location. Not least, we would like to campaign for closer cooperation in concrete areas, such as regulation. It would be mutually beneficial to foster even stronger exchanges with the international financial centres of Singapore and Hong Kong in particular.

Switzerland has long been a role model for Singapore in many respects. Are the two small states with their international financial centres moving closer together?

We have close ties with Singapore; the city-state is our most important trading partner in Southeast Asia. Some 350 Swiss companies employing around 28,000 people are based in Singapore. That is exactly the same number of people employed by Swiss banks in London.

Our starting position is very similar: We are small states with limited political weight, which have a global financial centre – and we can learn a lot from Singapore.

What can Switzerland learn?

Close cooperation between politics and the financial sector is taken for granted there. Singapore is an important location for technology, and digitalization is the issue of the future in the banking sector. We will therefore find out a lot of new things in Singapore, by listening, but we will also be actively discussing things, such as the introduction of the automatic exchange of information (AEI).

What are the highlights on this ministerial trip?

With 37 meetings in seven days and five events per day on average, it is difficult to pick out individual highlights. I am looking forward to meeting the «Who’s Who» of politics, the authorities and the financial sector in the different markets. The state has managed to put together a top-class programme.

«Those are real assets in a politically volatile world»

However, a particular highlight will certainly be the meeting with the Chinese finance minister. As a sector, and without the support of the Swiss minister, we would have found it very difficult to achieve that. This offers us the opportunity to raise our concerns at the highest political level.

What are your central messages in Asia?

The most important thing we can get across in our talks are the strengths of the Swiss financial centre: internationality, stability, openness, capacity for innovation, know-how and tradition. Those are real assets in a politically volatile world. We would like clients and investors to better appreciate Swiss financial services providers as the best choice for wealth management, asset management and insurance, and at the same time to show the advantages of locating a subsidiary in Switzerland.

«For me this journey is the start of a series of further activities»

Especially in Singapore and Hong Kong, we will emphasize our common interests in the area of international standards and seek stronger cooperation.

What goals have you set yourself for this trip?

Business relationships in Asia will not necessarily be assessed in measurable material results. What is much more important is the second word in that phrase, relationships. It is not the first time we have travelled to Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong, but it is the first time we are traveling on a shared platform with the Swiss government and authorities.

As such we will mainly be deepening existing relationships and providing encouragement. For me this journey is the start of a series of further activities to promote and strengthen the reputation of the financial sector.

Is the reputation of the Swiss financial centre still intact?

Although or perhaps even because Swiss banks have faced particularly big challenges, the Swiss financial sector and banks have gone through an enormous process of change, which would hardly have been thought possible ten years ago.

«Our strict rules ensure the highest security and quality»

We have made our banks more resistant to crises and are now in a stronger position than ten years ago. We have created a credible too-big-to-fail system for our large banks, which we have implemented faster than most other countries. As Swiss banks, we are among the best capitalized financial houses in the world.

Our strict rules ensure the highest security and quality. Today, Swiss banks are internationally competitive. We have to communicate this to the outside world.

Herbert Scheidt has been president of the Swiss Bankers Association since September 2016. From 2002 to 2011 he was CEO, and from 2011 chairman of the board of the Zurich banking group Vontobel. Before that he held a number of positions at Deutsche Bank in Germany, New York, Milan and Geneva, and was Head of Private Banking International at Deutsche Bank in Geneva, a role he held for six years. He completed a degree in economics at the University of Sussex, UK, and received an MBA from the University of New York, U.S.