Raiffeisen has moved a step further with the integration of the private banking division Notenstein La Roche. The bank has decided to pool investment decisions in one office and appointed a former analyst as its boss, finews.com has learned.

Since the beginning of the month, Raiffeisen has only one investment office. All asset allocation decisions for the private banking business, Notenstein La Roche, in other words are taken by the team working at Raiffeisen headquarters.

Mathis Buettiker has been put in charge of the investment office while Matthias Geissbuehler is the bank's CIO, Raiffeisen told finews.com.

From Analyst to CIO

Geissbuehler, 43, joined Basel-based La Roche private bank in 2010 and has since worked his way up through the ranks. He started his career as an analyst and fund manager at ATAG Asset Management, Bank Armand von Ernst & Co. and Bank CIAL.

Following the acquisition of La Roche by Raiffeisen unit Notenstein and its integration into one private bank, Geissbuehler in 2016 was appointed as CIO of the combined Notenstein La Roche division.

Private Bank Integration

Now, Raiffeisen decided to concentrate the investment expertise at the group in one office, launching its joint investment office in February. Buettiker heads a team of about 50 analysts and investment experts.

The creation of a single investment office comes as a further step towards an integration. During his tenure as CEO of the private bank, Adrian Kuenzi had centralized the portfolio management at Notenstein La Roche, strengthening the position of the investment specialists. The move met resistance by some relationship managers, some of which decided to leave the company as a consequence.

In Line With Rivals

The private bank, which is working hard to boost profitability, also took a step in the direction of closer cooperation with Raiffeisen, when it assumed all the wealth management mandates from the retail bank at the beginning of this year.

Running a unified investment office brings the bank in line with rivals such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Zuercher Kantonalbank, the three other banks in the top four of Switzerland. They all rolled out a so-called house view strategy in recent years.

House view in practice means that economists and analysts jointly agree on recommendations based on their analysis of markets and the economy. They pass their recommendations on to relationship managers and product specialists for implementation in client portfolios and asset allocations.