Falcon Private Bank is poised to tell staff it will wind itself down if ongoing talks with a potential buyer of assets come to fruition, finews.asia has learned.
The Abu Dhabi-owned Swiss bank's four-year struggle to reinvent itself following its dealings in the 1MDB scandal look to be drawing to a close: Falcon is poised to tell its remaining employees that it is in advanced talks with a potential buyer to offload about 10 billion Swiss francs ($10.3 billion) of client money, a person familiar with the matter told finews.asia on Monday.
Provided the talks are successful, the move allows Falcon to begin plans to wind itself down. The bank, which two weeks ago said it was evaluating options including an orderly exit from private banking, employed several hundred people at the end of 2018; it isn’t known how many still remain.
A spokesman for Falcon didn’t comment. The wind-down would follow net losses from Falcon in 2016, 2017, and 2018 despite a big infusion from owner Aabar, at least one failed sale attempt, and regulatory woes linked to its 2016 sanction over 1MDB. It also represents an end to Falcon’s three-year attempt to reinvent itself as a crypto bank.
