Lombard Odier and the Swedish Partner

How to Make a Bank More Profitable

The former head of SEB obviously knows her figures. At the time, she was appointed as head of SEB with a brief to make the bank profitable again. An expertise she will draw upon at the private bank in Geneva.

Of course, Lombard Odier already is profitable. That much became apparent from the figures published on Thursday. But there’s room for improvement in respect to operating costs.

Odier said that the bank was keen to optimize costs. Lombard Odier had managed to cut the cost-income-ratio by 2 percentage points to 82 percent from a year earlier. But the management’s aim was to reduce this ratio further, to below 80 percent.

Challenging Environment

To achieve this will prove a challenge given the difficult financial markets, ever new sets of rules and regulation and important investments in digital business tools.

«Under these conditions we have to make sure to make the right investments to live up to today’s and the future's needs of our customers,» said Falkengren.