Julius Baer is the latest firm to anoint a top digital executive. finews.asia reveals who is kickstarting the Swiss private bank's digital effort.
Anke Bridge is Credit Suisse's face of digitization while UBS Switzerland has enlisted Andreas Kubli for its digital push. Julius Baer has now also hired a Chief Digital Officer, finews.asia has learned.
The bank has named Christoph Hartgens, Julius Baer confirmed to finews.asia. He will report to Chief Operating Officer Nic Dreckmann.
Hartgens will coordinate and promote the private bank's digital projects as well as secure digital interaction with clients and outside partners, the bank said.
Trading Veteran
Hartgens joined Julius Baer four years ago as head of channels and partner business transformation. He has been on the board of F10, a fintech breeding ground run by stock exchange operator Six, since October.
Previously, he was head of the personal finance portal Cash Zweiplus, a joint venture of Bank Zweiplus and Swiss publishing house Ringier. Hartgens led structured product trading platform Tradejet, which was sold to Swissquote in 2010, from 2004 to 2006.
He began his career as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse, where he spent his first ten years in banking.
Catching Up Digitally
Julius Baer for years lagged private banking rivals in rejuvenating its information technology, and made little effort to digitize how its private bankers interact with clients.
Since 2015, Chief Executive Boris Collardi has prioritized the two topics. The bank decided to replace its antiquated platform with one built by banking software provider Temenos. It was against this backdrop that the bank bought Commerzbank in Luxembourg, which already works with the same platform that the Swiss bank is migrating onto.
This past April, the bank launched a mobile banking app developed by Swiss firm Crealogix. The app allows clients to utilize all online banking functions with a smartphone. Julius Baer is also supporting its private bankers with a robo-adviser, which makes recommendations on how to rebalance client portfolios.
