Julius Baer saw assets under management fall in 2022 due to a significant correction in global stocks and bonds but strong inflows in the second half offset de-risking.

Assets under management (AUM) at Julius Baer fell by 58 billion Swiss francs ($64 billion) to 424 billion francs in 2022, according to its latest annual results, marking a 12 percent year-on-year decrease.

«This decline was mostly attributable to significant corrections in global equity and bonds markets, following the significant interest rate hikes by central banks around the world, as well as a net negative currency impact, mainly stemming from a further weakening of the euro and British pound against the Swiss franc,» the bank said.

Net New Money

Although Julius Baer registered a net outflow of 1 billion francs in the first half of the year, it was able to offset this amount with net new money of 10 billion francs in the second half, resulting in positive inflows of 9 billion francs in 2022. The last two months of the year were especially strong with 6 billion francs of net inflows.

By geography, there were strong contributions in key markets like Germany, UK and Ireland, the Iberian Peninsula and Qatar, where the bank opened its third Middle East advisory office towards the end of the year. In Asia, asset inflows also turned positive in the second half of the year, offsetting net outflows from de-risking and de-leveraging in the first half.

Still, weaker markets resulted in adjusted pre-tax profit falling 10 percent to 1.2 billion francs.

2020-2022 Strategic Cycle

For the 2020-2022 period, Julius Baer managed to meet its previously set financial targets which include cost-income ratio, adjusted pre-tax margin, adjusted return on CET1 capital and average annual growth in pre-tax profits. This was also the second most profitable period in the bank’s history.

«We are closing the 2020-2022 strategic cycle with the second-best result ever. Across the period we have fundamentally transformed our business, mastered various challenges in the operating environment, and achieved all the financial targets we had set ourselves three years ago,» said Julius Baer CEO Philipp Rickenbacher.