After a transitional year, Swiss-based Rothschild Bank has been able to stop the outflows of client funds, despite the stock market slump at the end of 2018. However, the firm has closed its office in Singapore.

In 2018, the Rothschild & Co. Bank (Rothschild) for the first time aligned its reporting to the calendar year and posted a profit of 38.4 million Swiss francs (US$38.26 million), according to its latest annual report.

This result is not comparable to the previous year, as in 2017 the firm reported a profit of 11.8 million francs over a nine-month reporting period (transitional year). However, it is clear that in 2018 the company suffered a decline in assets under management of 3 percent to 14.1 billion francs, mainly due to the weak stock markets in the fourth quarter of 2018, as Bruno Pfister, chairman of the Board of Directors, wrote in the annual report.

New Inflows

In contrast to the decline in deposits, the institute was able to acquire net new assets of 719 million francs in 2018, after having recorded a net outflow of 294 million francs in the previous period. This positive development is mainly attributable to business in Switzerland and Germany as well as to Latin American customers, Rothschild CEO Laurent Gagnebin told finews.asia in an interview.

Taking all managed and administrated assets of the Rothschild Bank together, they amounted at the end of 2018 to 31.88 billion francs compared to 30.28 billion francs in the previous year, an increase of 5.3 percent.

Dusseldorf Instead of Singapore

In addition to Switzerland, Germany is developing into an increasingly important market for the bank. Last year the firm opened a branch in Dusseldorf – in addition to its existing location in Frankfurt. In contrast, the institute closed its office in Singapore because, according to Gagnebin, «the institute is simply too small to run two locations in Asia» (Singapore and Hong Kong).

Rothschild intends to continue to grow, especially in the target markets Switzerland and Germany, and to use new technologies to become more digital both internally and externally, according to Gagnebin.

Separation from Edmond de Rothschild

Last year, the bank also completed a total separation from the Edmond de Rothschild Group in Geneva and Paris, as finews.asia reported earlier.