Private banking in Germany: a tough market for Swiss companies to crack. Now it looks as if Julius Baer has found a way to make money in Europe’s largest economy.
The news came as a surprise: Julius Baer has been profitable in Germany since 2015, said Heiko Schlag, head of the country organization, according to an interview in «Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung» (behind paywall) on Wednesday. In 2017, the Zurich-based bank made a profit of less than 10 million euros. But in 2018 so far, the company already received 400 million euros from customers.
Based on this account it makes sense that the Swiss bank announced the opening of its ninth branch in Hannover in the summer. «Growth is accelerating,» Schlag reported, according to the newspaper.
New Staff Hired
Julius Baer in 2018 alone has hired ten new relationship managers, half of which were female. Since 2014, the number of relationship managers has doubled to 80. The bank didn’t have any departures last year, according to Schlag.
Julius Baer didn’t provide a figure for assets under management in Germany, partly because its competitors include assets from institutional clients in private banking even though these have a lower margin, Schlag said. Since 2014, Julius Baer in Germany acquired at least one billion euros a year in assets from rich private customers.
All-in-Fee Popular With Clients
About 60 percent of the clients delegated the decision of how to invest the assets to the bank. Of those, more than 90 percent opted for the all-in-fee solution. Schlag didn’t say how much the fee on average was.
