The Swiss private bank is poaching five veteran private bankers off its rival in Luxembourg. The move is a sign of Julius Baer's ambitions in a key European market.
Iqbal Khan, Credit Suisse's top private banker, is losing a team of long-standing private bankers in Luxembourg to Julius Baer, the smaller private bank said in a statement on Thursday.
The movers are Jean-Daniel Roch, Oliver Theisen, Françoise Dawir, Tomasz Kosiur and Nicolas de Canchy. All are former Credit Suisse bankers, and all possess Benelux books as well as some Middle East business.
Roch, a 35-year veteran of Credit Suisse, will lead Julius Baer in Luxembourg and report to western European head Carlos Recoder. Falk Fischer will continue to lead the Luxembourg branch. It wasn't immediately clear whether the mass defection has anything to do with changes last month at Credit Suisse in Luxembourg, which is now run by Stéphane Herrmann.
Hiring Spree
For Julius Baer, the move fits its vow to add at least 80 private bankers to its force this year under new CEO Bernhard Hodler. The hiring and spending spree reflects a bid to bolster assets and expand deeper into its key markets including Europe and Switzerland, Asia, and Latin America.
The bank has big plans in Luxembourg: it bought Commerzbank's operations there three years ago, and plans to begin booking clients from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, and Luxembourg itself in the Grand duchy this year.
