Barclays is making a renewed effort to strengthen its wealth management arm in Switzerland. finews.ch-TV spoke to the British bank's head of Swiss private banking, Gerald Mathieu.
Only three years ago, the fate of Barclays' Swiss private bank was hotly debated. Much like investment banking-heavy banks like Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, the British bank had to redefine its strategy and retreat from certain wealth markets.
Under CEO Jes Staley, a former long-standing J.P. Morgan banker who briefly sat in UBS' board, Barclays has laid out the detail of its private bank. Barclays sold its Asian wealth arm to Singaporean bank OCBC two years ago, for example, in favor of emphasizing Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Hiring in Switzerland
New Swiss private bank head Gerald Mathieu is seeking to bed that down in Switzerland. Mathieu, who formerly ran Barclays in Monaco before taking overJames Buchanan-Michaelson six months ago, told finews.ch-TV in an interview that Barclays is here to stay.
«It's pretty clear that the overall strategy is to grow the private bank around the world, and it becomes very obvious that Switzerland is the heart of private banking – so we need to develop Switzerland», the 51-year-old Frenchman said. The London-based bank employs roughly 400 people in Switzerland, the vast majority in Geneva.
Mathieu's mandate is to bolster private banking teams in Zurich as well as Geneva. «One of my key priorities is to recruit the right talents for the Geneva and Zurich platform», Mathieu said – based in Geneva, he had spent the morning before sitting down with finews.ch-TV interviewing job candidates in Zurich.
Subtle Zurich Upgrade
While Barclays wealth has traditionally centered in Geneva, Mathieu signaled a subtle upgrade to the British bank's Zurich offices. Barclays is looking to hire private bankers and specialists for areas like investment and credit, he said.
He didn't elaborate on specific targets, perhaps wary of Buchanan-Michaelson's pledge to double Barclays' assets to 28 billion Swiss francs (the bank managed 11.57 billion francs out of Switzerland at year-end).
How does he plan to win new clients? Mathieu wants to put sophisticated, tailor-made investment banking services at the disposal of the wealthiest segment of clients. «This is what clients expect: they are more sophisticated, more demanding, and are expecting us to be innovative», he said.
