Juerg Zeltner has put UBS’ private bank on a strict cost-cutting program. He still plans to maintain an annual Christmas party, but in a more austere fashion. By contrast, stock exchange operator SIX splashed out for its year-end staff event.

The mood is somber at UBS’ flagship private bank: revenue has fallen for the seventh consecutive quarter. With uncertain financial markets, apathetic clients, and increasing competition, there is little improvement in sight.

UBS’ private bank has to lower its sights, unit head Juerg Zeltner has warned. Until now, that has mostly meant slashing spending, which the bank hopes to cut by 2.1 billion Swiss francs overall by the end of next year, 1.5 billion of which already have been chopped.

Kaufleuten Event

But Zeltner has maintained the unit’s Christmas party: invites went out recently to a «thank you event» on December 13 in Kaufleuten, a restaurant and club venue popular with the city’s bankers.

UBS didn’t comment to finews.com.

Credit Suisse’s Budget

Individual divisions of Switzerland’s largest bank organize similar events at year-end, but has largely done away with department dinners. If the bank used to budget 150 Swiss francs per employee for a year-end event, it has become customary for employees to pay their own way if departments still get together for a Christmas dinner.

Credit Suisse is also in the midst of slashing 2 billion francs in spending by 2018 in a restructuring led by CEO Tidjane Thiam. A spokesman said the bank is nevertheless organizing a Christmas party, with an undisclosed budget per employee. Individual units such as corporate clients Switzerland, which has had a good year, are organizing their year-end events separately, he said.

Clariden Leu's Blowout

The events being organized in coming weeks for Zurich’s bankers pale in comparison to the glory days of Swiss banking, when raucous Christmas parties capped off a glorious year of heady profits.

The most legendary events were those hosted by Clariden Leu, a private bank which was merged into parent Credit Suisse four years ago. The bank usually rented space at the Swissôtel in a suburb of Zurich for an event which spanned «from dinner to breakfast», as one banker said.

Several hundred employees were invited, and many returned to Zurich specifically to take part, as well as close external partners. For a white-glove private bank, the meal was «unremarkable,» but the event was known to test the stamina of even the most determined Bacchanalian party-goer. We «ate, drank, celebrated and danced» through the night, stopping briefly for a specially-prepared midnight sausage snack, one former private banker said.

The events often followed a theme such as casino, according to the former private banker. The bank splashed out for rooms at the Swissôtel for those bankers who lived far away from Zurich, and gave those within city limits taxi vouchers for the early-morning journey home.

SIX in Las Vegas

The casino theme was revived at SIX’s Christmas party last Friday; 2,000 of overall 3,800 employees celebrated in the Maag Event Hall with food, music and dancing. Employees placed bets at various gambling tables – with play money, a spokesman for SIX said.

SIX’s employees celebrated in the stock exchange operator’s various branches until two years ago. With a joint Christmas party for all employees, SIX is seeking to bolster team ties, the firm said.