Laurent Gagnebin is one of the new breed of Swiss bankers attempting to flourish without banking secrecy. In a finews.com exclusive, the head of Rothschild in Switzerland talks about the social skills needed to be a private banker and the legacy of his well-known private banker father.

The father of two young daughters, Laurent Gagnebin's career has zig-zagged from hospitality to finance. An alumni of Goldman Sachs' private bank, he told finews.com what lessons he drew from luxury hotel industry for finance and how Rothschild plans to pip larger rivals.

A native Vaudoise, Gagnebin has been head of Rothschild's Swiss private bank for eight months. In the second installment of an exclusive interview with finews.com, Gagnebin talks about his priorities for the family-controlled firm and what types of private banker he likes to hire. 


Mr. Gagnebin, you grew up in a private banking dynasty. Did you always want to be a banker?

Not at all. I went to Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne, which I think is a fantastic education and I hope that my girls will do that. I would definitely encourage them to go there.

I feel that the hospitality industry and private banking are not that different: it’s around the clients. In the past five to seven years, we focused on compliance, risk, FATCA – you name it –mostly on regulatory issues.

«Swiss banks should put the client back in the center again»

Banks haven’t actually focused enough on the clients: what can I do to serve my clients better, what does he need, how can I improve my relationship with him and understand him better? It's time that Swiss banks put the client back at the center of their concerns again.

Your father is legendary private banker George Gagnebin. Has that ever been a burden to you?

Not at all. It’s only since I’ve been at Rothschild in Zurich that I get that question more. And it’s still not a burden – it’s actually a pleasure. When I was at Goldman Sachs, people didn't care about it – only performance counts (laughs).

You’ve been CEO of Rothschild Private Bank for just over six months. What issues have you identified to address first?

There are four: investment performance, profitability, people and digitization. I think because of the Rothschild name and the reputation, clients have higher expectations and therefore actually performing on average is below what they expect from us. I spend a lot of time together with my investment department colleagues trying to further improve performance.

You say people: so you're hiring?

Hiring people is super easy; hiring the right people is pretty difficult. That’s why we spend a lot of time on it. Our interview process is fairly long. 

We want to make sure that he or she understands who we are, what we do, how we see the environment, the market, and that we feel comfortable with each other. It's not meant to be complicated, but we want to invest enough time before they join us.

How many interviews would a Rothschild private banker sit for before being hired?

He probably meets on average seven to ten people. I personally interview 100 percent of the client advisors we hire. I have met several dozen potential Rothschild client advisors for one of our teams, and we only hired two. We absolutely insist on the highest caliber of person.

What sort of traits convince you to hire a private banker?

First of all, he needs to be motivated to actually join us. Some people are just shopping around. You get a feeling of, «I’m not really interested in joining but I thought maybe in case I get fired I need a Plan B».

«I'm not interested if you're not motivated»

You have a lot of that, or that’s how it feels sometimes at least. My usual response is, «Well, I’m not interested either, because I want you to be really motivated to join us.»

What about specific banker know-how?

He needs to be investment-savvy. Our client advisors need to understand the whole financial environment as well as the client’s individual portfolio. We expect them to have a strong understanding of different international environments, compliance and cross-border rules and be themselves entrepreneurial.

«You don't need to come in a group of three or four people – the big-bank phenomenon»

It makes a big difference if you can speak yourself to your clients about many things, if you do not always need to come in a group of three to four people – the so-called relationship manager, the investment consultant and other persons for this and that – the big bank phenomenon.

What about the softer factors?

They need to be good at relationships, able to connect socially. All these factors that I’ve mentioned – the ones specific to banking, to regulation, to motivation, and social aptitude – need to be fulfilled. And you really have to be 100 percent sure about the person. 

What role does digitization play in your plans?

We want to develop our advisory capabilities, not unlike others. We have a fairly large discretionary book compared to other banks – 40 percent of clients are discretionary. We want to reduce the execution-only business that we do, which is about 50 percent, and offer more advice to our clients. That’s where our added value is. Execution-only is going to become much more difficult for private banks because of the cost pressure.

«In the midst of a fairly large digitization project»

MiFID II and Fidleg [Swiss Financial Services Act] will make the management of wealth increasingly complicated, so you have to develop your digital capabilities. Otherwise its going to become huge administrative burden for the banks and client advisors. We are in the middle of a fairly large project where we’ll be able to offer more digital capabilities to our clients.

How quickly will this happen and how much are you spending?

There are several waves of the rollout, and the first one will be in autumn. It’s costing us quite a bit, but the thing is, it offers huge opportunities. You can really offer your clients much better service than before. If you offer a better service to your client, they have more reason grow their relationship with you. 

«Digitization is a necessity»

It’s definitely a necessity: the new generation of clients and entrepreneurs want to have several ways to speak to us. They want to be able to meet their client advisors from time to time, but they also want to be able to communicate to you whenever they want through other interfaces.

Are acquisitions an opportunity for you to grow?

We will always consider potential acquisitions, but as the unique culture of Rothschild is so crucial to our success, we look at any potential deal very carefully.

«In the past, never found the perfect bride, but we will always consider potential deals

The business model, the clients, and the employees have to be the right ones for us. We’re very cautious. Historically we never found the perfect bride in Switzerland. That said, if we find it, we would definitely consider it.


The 40-year-old Laurent Gagnebin joined Rothschild Wealth Management Equitas, the Genevan arm of Zurich-based Rothschild, in 2011. Prior to that, he ran Investec Bank in Geneva. He got his start in finance at Goldman Sachs in Switzerland, after working in the luxury hospitality industry for several years following his education at the École hôtelière de Lausanne. He succeeded Veit de Maddalena as head of Rothschild in Switzerland last July.

Laurent Gagnebin is the son of George Gagnebin, a Swiss private banker who was part of UBS' top management following its merger with Swiss Bank Corporation. Today, the elder Gagnebin is chairman of Geneva-based Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza.

This is the second installment of an exclusive finews.asia interview. His views on how Rothschild plans to grow in Asia can be read on finews.asia.