The Swiss Lombard family is making its presence felt at Landolt private bank in Lausanne. Alexis Lombard has been elected to the board of directors.
Alexis Lombard has been a member of the directorate at Landolt & Cie in Lausanne since the beginning of the month. He was elected to the board of directors together with his cousin, Frédéric Binder, according to the commercial registry of the cantonal government.
Lombard and Binder left Geneva-based Lombard Odier private bank in February and joined Thierry Lombard, the father of Alexis, at Landolt in Lausanne, which lies some 60 kilometers away from Geneva along the shores of the namesake lake.
The elder Lombard has been a partner of the small private bank since last year.
Milestone in Family History
Joining the management at Landolt marks another milestone for the Lombard family's break with the Geneva private bank – which still proudly carries the name of the family.
It is also a very public step towards a closer collaboration between the Lombard and Landolt families – Pierre Landolt is chairman at the bank founded in 1780. His great grandfather Edouard Sandoz founded the namesake drug company in Basel.
New Generation at Landolt
The Landolt family is looking to put the bank into the hands of a new generation and Lombard's involvement is key to this process. The seismic changes within the French-speaking banking community of Switzerland is evidently to the detriment of Lombard Odier.
The Geneva-based bank has been the subject of rumors for months. An item published by finews.ch two months ago about the possible takeover of Lombard Odier (or parts of it) by Julius Baer, the private bank based in Zurich, caught the attention of bankers in Geneva as well as the possibility that Julius Baer CEO Boris Collardi might be a candidate to become a partner at the bank.
Fundamental Change at Lombard Odier
Lombard Odier, a bank with a history spanning some 220 years, is undergoing a change that partly has to do with the stake that Thierry Lombard bought at Landolt. Albeit his departure in 2014 at Lombard Odier can be explained on the grounds of his age, saying goodbye seemed to be just a tad too dry and raised questions about the relations between the partners at the bank.
After all, the partners barred Alexis from joining in his father's footsteps – and thus the Lombard family ceased to be represented on the board for the first time after six generations. The conflict between the two families became all too apparent
Seasoned Private Banker
At Landolt, Alexis will now represent his father, who hasn't assumed an official role at the bank. Alexis has already made his name in private banking after an initial education at a hotel management school in Lausanne.
At Lombard Odier, Alexis Lombard was responsible for customers from emerging markets. The keen sailor has formidable contacts in Latin America in particular, which he will put to work at Landolt. It seems yet to early to say how the three involved families and their banks will shape up once the dust has settled.
