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It seems that the latest status symbol in private banking is a phone-call from Boris Collardi. finews.com compiles a list of those whose phones are most likely to ring.

His first stroke was poaching an entire team of Middle East experts from Julius Baer in December. His second won't be long in waiting. Ex-Julius Baer CEO Boris Collardi was hired last year by rival Pictet with a brief to boost growth. And his latest transfers have shown that he won't shy away from calling former charges at the Zurich-based private bank.

Collardi's poaching has caused such turmoil that Pictet saw it necessary to effectively mediate via the pages of «Neue Zuercher Zeitung" (in German, behind paywall) on Wednesday. Nicolas Pictet, managing partner of the eponymous bank, told the Swiss business-friendly daily that his bank isn't looking for a fight with Julius Baer. He also denied a connection between Collardi's start at Pictet last June and the Middle East raid.
 

Daniel Savary, who led the Middle East team, won't remain the only Julius Baer manager to see Collardi's number pop up on his display. Collardi had a crew of close confidants around him in Zurich, together with an army of advisers. The coming months will show how far old loyalties will hold.

Wooing the Latin America Team

Among the first to be approached regarding a transfer to Geneva were relationship managers on the Latin America desk, according to information obtained by finews.com. But Collardi's focus really will be on Asia, which is where Pictet has plenty of catching up to do and where several Julius Baer bankers would seem to fit the bill. But the instigators of growth for Julius Baer in the U.K., Germany, Italy or Israel all would be well worth talking to – and not least the bankers with strong networks in German-speaking Switzerland.

And here are the potential candidates for a call from the point of view of finews.com:

1. Angela Bow

Bow 500

With three decades of experience spanning Hong Kong, Tokyo, Geneva and New York and a polished persona to match, Angela Bow has made herself something of a brand in Asian private banking. She is known to take no prisoners, an attitude that Boris Collardi himself favors. «Extremely presentable,» is how one industry source describes her, while another confirms that she used her time at Credit Suisse and UBS to build «real and deep» relationships in the South East Asian markets – an area where Pictet has made many frustrated attempts to build an all-star team.

The fact that she was, until recently, the head of Japan, Emerging Asia and Intermediaries business at Julius Baer, is like icing on the cake.