Switzerland's finance minister is leading a delegation of bankers and businesspeople on a trip to China. The visit is meant to intensify ties, including for wealth managers in the booming Asian market.
Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer will visit China next week with a group of bankers, businesspeople, and diplomats, the Swiss government said in a statement on Tuesday. The two governments will sign a Belt-and-Road accord designed to deepen trade, investment, and project financing in third markets along the route.
Belt and Road is a massive infrastructure project which aims to revive the old Silk Road to connect China with Asia, Europe and beyond. The project has been received skeptically by the U.S. Switzerland's role isn't clear – the memo won't be made public until the pact is inked later this month.
Renminbi Plans
The visit comes against the backdrop of already-deep ties between the two: President Xi Jinping visited Switzerland for four full days in 2017, an unusually long stay that was not linked to another state visit elsewhere. Chinese industrial firm ChemChina’s takeover of Syngenta was widely viewed as a sign that Chinese firms are welcome in Switzerland.
Financially, Switzerland lost out on to London in a bid to become Europe's renminbi trading hub – the City officially trades more volume in the Chinese currency than British pound to euro, the «Financial Times» (behind paywall) reported in February.
Wealth Push
But Switzerland's wealth and asset managers have had more luck: UBS clinched a majority of a Chinese joint venture last year, beating out American rivals. Credit Suisse followed suit this week.
Maurer, who has accompanied banking delegations to Saudia Arabia and Asia before, visited China with a group including UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti in 2017. The alpine nation likes to view itself as something of a tutor for China's market opening, the country's top finance diplomat told finews.com.
Political Tightrope
The relationship has also had its complexities: a UBS private banker based in Hong Kong was asked not to leave last year when she visited Shanghai, finews.com reported. The episode underscored the risks for Swiss banks such as UBS, which is banking heavily on tapping Chinese wealth.
The saga of actress Fan Bingbing's tax evasion troubles also underscores the political tightrope wealth managers are walking, as finews.asia reported last year. The visit to Shanghai and Beijing comes as the Swiss government plans to head for Riyadh, after a visit last year.
