Swiss Private Banks: Which Ones Thrived, Which Ones Faltered?

A large part of the 2024 reporting season has come to an end: finews.asia compares the performance of the major Swiss private banks.

Global market conditions were exceptionally favorable last year. In particular, the performance of the stock markets – with the MSCI World Index delivering a return of 24.81 percent including dividends – should have ignited a fireworks display among the Swiss private banks.

How have the Swiss private banks fared this year? Among the larger institutions – each managing over 100 billion Swiss francs ($111 billion) – are the publicly listed UBS, Julius Baer, EFG and Vontobel as well as the privately held Pictet, Lombard Odier and Union Bancaire Privée (UBP).

1. Assets under Management

The most important foundation for a private bank’s success is its assets under management. It is from these that the potential to generate revenue from commissions or other services arises.

Below, we rank the banks by the relative change compared to the end of 2023:

  1. Julius Bär: Assets under Management (AUM) increased from 427.4 billion francs to 497.4 billion (up 16.4 percent).
  2. EFG: The private bank achieved AUM growth of 23.3 billion francs, reaching 165.5 billion (up 16.4 percent).
  3. Pictet increased its AUM by 14 percent, reaching a new total of 724 billion francs.
  4. Vontobel saw its Private Clients’ AUM rise from 98 billion francs to 111 billion (up 12 percent).
  5. Lombard Odier: The bank achieved a 12 percent increase, managing a total AuM of 215 billion francs by the end of 2024 (the group's client assets grew by 11 percent to 327 billion francs).
  6. UBP’s AUM grew by 10.1 percent, reaching 154.4 billion francs.
  7. UBS: The value of invested assets in Global Wealth Management increased from $3.9 trillion to $4.2 trillion (up 6.6 percent), while fee-generating assets grew by 9.3 percent to 1.8 trillion by the end of 2024. However, it should be noted that UBS reports its figures in dollars; when converted into Swiss francs, the increase is 18 percent for the fee-generating assets and 15 percent for total AUM.

2. Net New Money

Net new money – the difference between inflows and outflows – is an important metric for a bank’s competitiveness in generating new client relationships. Although there is no universally standardized method for measuring it, this figure is widely regarded as a key indicator of competitiveness.

The top 6 Swiss private banks delivered the following net new money performance, ranked by percentage growth compared to the end of 2023:

  1. EFG positions itself as the net new money leader with 10.1 billion francs, equivalent to 7.1 percent.
  2. Vontobel reported net new money of 4.6 billion francs in its Private Clients, which represents 4.7 percent of its AUM as of the end of 2023.
  3. Julius Baer reported net new money of 14.2 billion francs (3.3 percent).
  4. UBS recorded «net new assets» in Global Wealth Management amounting to $96.7 billion – corresponding to 2.5 percent of its AUM as of the end of 2023.
  5. Pictet’s net new money amounted to 11 billion francs or 1.7 percent.
  6. UBP published a figure of 1.7 billion francs in net new money for private clients (1.1 percent).
  7. Lombard Odier refers to «positive» net new money in its 2024 annual results communication, though it provides no further details.

Revenue and Costs

How much operating income or revenue were the banks able to generate based on their AUM? And what were the costs relative to that? The cost/income ratio provides insight into the profitability of the core business. Here is the ranking:

  1. UBP: 67.7 percent
  2. Julius Baer: 70.9 percent
  3. EFG: 72.1 percent
  4. Vontobel: The cost/income ratio is not reported separately for the Private Client segment. For the overall bank, it stood at 74.7 percent in 2024.
  5. Pictet: No figures for the 2024 cost/income ratio are available yet. In the previous year, it was 77 percent.
  6. UBS: 79.5 percent
  7. Lombard Odier: 83 percent

Operating Profit

The ultimate goal of any business activity – including banking – is to generate profit. In terms of year-over-year profit, the top 6 private banks performed as follows:

  1. Vontobel: The overall bank (Private Clients and Institutional Clients) recorded a pre-tax profit of 266.1 million francs, 34 percent higher than the previous year.
  2. Pictet increased its profit by 15.0 percent to 665 million francs.
  3. The UBP group raised its profit by 15 percent to 257.4 million francs.
  4. UBS (PWM): An increase in pre-tax profit from $3.45 billion to $3.94 billion (up 13.9 percent).
  5. Julius Baer: Pre-tax net profit amounted to 1.050 billion francs, an increase of 11 percent over the previous year.
  6. EFG: Profit reached 321.6 million francs, 6.1 percent higher.
  7. Lombard Odier: With a 19 percent decrease compared to the previous year, the bank achieved a profit of 179 million francs.

The figures listed above are not comparable in every respect; the differing corporate structures and business areas also affect the structure of financial reporting.

And there are still gaps: J. Safra Sarasin will only present its 2024 figures in early April. In 2023, the bank set the bar very high: with assets under management of 204.3 billion francs, it achieved a group profit of 470.3 million francs and shone with a cost/income ratio of only 46.2 percent.

Also, Edmond de Rothschild, whose AUM stood at 178.0 billion francs in mid-2024, has not yet presented its full-year results.

Read on the following pages how finews.asia assessed the performance of each of the seven banks in the past year.


1. Pictet

The Geneva-based private bank towers above the rest. The new Senior Partner Marc Pictet, who took over the reins from Renaud de Planta last June, now leads an institution that exudes an almost aristocratic aura.

Its private banking approach is extremely purist, and around one-third of its assets under management come from institutional business.

The 2024 annual results – whose key figures the bank published on February 11 – show no major surprises: profit increased by 15 percent to 665 million francs.

This reflects both the generally strong market development and the significant impact of fines incurred in the previous year in the USA—which cost the bank over 100 million francs.

The high profit is contrasted by a relatively modest net new money performance in 2024. In absolute terms, however, Pictet’s 11 billion francs in net new money still outpaces all peers except UBS (which, in terms of size, plays in its own league) and Julius Baer.

In Geneva, one can relax: the «Bears» would need to generate an extra 3 billion francs in net new money over 98 years – as they did in 2024 – to overtake Pictet in assets under management.

Pictet’s comparatively high cost/income ratio (77 percent in 2023, with no figures published yet for 2024) must also be seen in context: since profit is distributed among relatively few partners, Pictet is, in a sense, in a league of its own here.


2. EFG International

EFG is the young maverick among the larger Swiss private banks.

In terms of net new money, it positions itself at the top of the compared institutions with an impressive 7.1 percent relative to its AuM.

The duo of CEO Giorgio Pradelli—with the bank since 2003—and former Julius Baer chief Boris Collardi appears to work exceptionally well, underpinning a convincing growth case.

The record profit of 321.6 million francs released on February 19 for 2024 bolsters the credibility of this growth story, as does the acquisition—announced pending FINMA approval—of the Geneva-based private bank boutique Cité Gestion with 7.5 billion francs in AUM.

Cité Gestion had recently expanded rather aggressively in Zurich, where, according to reports, EFG still sees room for catch-up.

EFG has also proven adept as an aggressive first mover in swiftly capitalizing on labor market opportunities following the collapse of Credit Suisse—unlike Lombard Odier, which pursued a similar strategy but has yet to see results.

The bank has shown particular strength in attracting and motivating top private banking talent. Examples include the poaching of former Credit Suisse top teams in Gstaad and St. Moritz as well as in Asia.

EFG’s strong growth in Asia is at least partly coming at the expense of UBS, whose PWM in that market has experienced outflows—a development that, as «Bloomberg» recently explained (subscription required), could pose problems for Iqbal Khan.


3. Union Bancaire Privée (UBP)

In private banking, UBP is the second smallest of the banks under review, with 154.4 billion francs in AUM.

By that measure, the annual profit of 257.4 million francs—presented already at the end of January (which is nearly half that of the four times larger Pictet) is indeed impressive.

CEO Guy de Picciotto, who has led the bank since 1998 (practically an eternity), can take pride in having the lowest cost/income ratio among all the banks compared.

It is clearly a well‐oiled and highly profitable private banking machine that remains relatively discreet in public.

In 2024, UBP acquired parts of the private banking division of the French major bank Société Générale – namely, its Swiss private banking arm and the British private banking division SG Kleinwort Hambros.


4. Julius Baer

«Bears» are back – that’s one way to summarize the 2024 annual results of the publicly listed institution.

After the turbulence and confusion surrounding the write-down scandal related to René Benko, the bank presented an impressive annual result on February 3, with profit rising by 11 percent to 1.050 billion francs.

Julius Baer also showed a very dynamic side with net new money totaling 14.2 billion francs.

Despite strong figures, the stock markets did not grant the new CEO Stefan Bollinger a vote of confidence. In fact, following the publication of the annual results, the share price dropped by 13 percent—although it has since recovered half of that loss.

Evidently, market expectations were even higher; Julius Baer actually trailed the profits recorded in 2021 and 2022.

Furthermore, the announced cost-cutting program and reorganization did not win over all market participants. Although Bollinger has aggressively reduced the executive board from 15 to 5 members, many of the demoted executives remain with the bank and now report directly to the new CEO from outside the management team.

With Bollinger’s appointment as CEO, the bank achieved a surprising coup last year. The 2024 results now appear to provide a solid foundation for decisively driving business growth.


5. Vontobel

Finally, over 100 billion francs in assets under management in private banking! With this figure published on February 7, Vontobel still has the smallest private banking division among the institutions under review.

However, the figures presented by Co-CEO Georg Schubiger, responsible for «Private Clients», are rather encouraging overall.

With net new money of 4.6 billion francs and a group profit (including «Institutional Clients») of 226 million francs, the bank managed to appease the markets. Unlike UBS and Julius Baer, the institution was not penalized by the stock exchange.

The cost/income ratio improved markedly from 79.2 percent to 74.7 percent compared to 2023, though it still remains above Vontobel’s communicated medium-term target of 72 percent. However, a closer look at the annual report does raise some questions: from which markets is this net new money coming? The «Advised Client Assets» evolved last year as follows:

Based on these figures, it appears that a large part of the net new money was generated in «other markets». This raises the question: which markets are these? Especially since the individually listed regions comprehensively cover the key private banking destinations.

What sets Vontobel apart from the other institutions is that the bank is not a «pure player» in private banking; it also operates an institutional business of comparable scale, led by Co-CEO Christel Rendu de Lint. In 2024, this segment’s net new money was markedly lower than that of private banking.

Thus, the bank stands on two pillars—a structure that has traditionally made it challenging for Vontobel to keep pace with the other major private banks in the private client segment.

Somewhat erratic acquisitions in the past—most notably the Eastern Europe business of Notenstein La Roche in 2017—have reinforced this impression. Likewise, the acquisition of the small IHAG Private Bank, announced last year and completed in early January—which managed a significant portion of the former owner, the Anda Bührle family’s assets—is not considered a «game changer» in this context.


6. UBS

Targeting $100 billion in net new money in Private Wealth Management, UBS narrowly missed the mark by achieving $96.7 billion, according to the Q4 2024 report published on February 4.

Also disappointing were the outflows in the Asian PWM segment – a market where other Swiss banks such as EFG and Vontobel are thriving.

Subsequently, the stock exchanges showed their harsh side: the share price dropped by nearly 10 percent, though it has since recovered half of that loss.

As the only remaining Swiss major bank aspiring to compete globally with institutions like J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and HSBC, UBS stands as the giant among Swiss private banks.

However, its 2024 annual profit of $5.1 billion appears somewhat lackluster compared to international peers. Even Deutsche Bank – a long-standing market worry – achieved a similar performance last year.

The key challenge in PWM lies in reducing costs following the merger with Credit Suisse. With a 79.5 percent cost/income ratio, UBS’s private banking is the second most expensive among the banks compared.


7. Lombard Odier

Lombard Odier’s 2024 annual results raise a few eyebrows on Bahnhofstrasse: despite an excellent market environment, the bank recorded a profit of 179 million francs – 19 percent lower than the previous year.

In 2023, Lombard Odier made headlines with an aggressive hiring strategy. Approximately 60 relationship managers were poached from Credit Suisse. At present, there is little indication that this expansion on the client front has paid off.

While the Geneva-based private bank has not yet published detailed figures for 2024, its press release on the key figures of the annual results mentioned only «a record year in terms of assets under management in our private client division», noting that it also experienced «one of the strongest years in terms of new client inflows».

In response to an inquiry from finews.asia, Lombard Odier attributed its relatively modest annual profit – even in a multi-year comparison – to a 33 percent decline in net interest income as well as to «exceptional costs due to the move to our new headquarters this year.» 2024 was described by the bank as a record year in terms of its private client division, although, as Lombard Odier further stated: «The bankers we hired in recent years contributed to the net new money inflows.»

Nevertheless, Lombard Odier ranks only fifth among the seven banks in terms of the relative increase in AUM compared to the previous year – with an 12 percent rise.