UBS may be the biggest wealth manager of this world, but last year wasn’t great in terms of assets under management. The Zurich-based company saw its tally decline by $161 billion. Officially, this was down to the decline of the stock market. Still, UBS has been slow to grow over the course of several quarters. This was particularly true of the Asian market and the very rich clients, people who have at least 50 million francs at UBS.
Credit Suisse, the second big Swiss bank, also took a decline last year – assets under management dropped 30 billion francs. Other than its arch-rival UBS, Credit Suisse increased the figures in Asia.
Tough Conditions
The noble private banks based in Geneva also had some significant drops to contend with. Lombard Odier for instance posted a decline in assets under management of 15 billion francs. Patrick Odier, senior partner at the bank, told finews.com earlier this year that the company had been able to recover the lost ground in the first quarter of 2019.
The biggest drop in percentage terms affected Migros Bank (-11 percent), a drop it attributed to the challenging environment.
Special Case
Raiffeisen definitely is a special case, because the bank was under very close public scrutiny throughout 2018 due to the investigation into the affairs of former CEO Pierin Vincenz. It would have come as no surprise if clients had pulled out, but Chairman Guy Lachapelle insisted that this had not been the case.
The bank still posted a decline in assets, but attributed the drop to the markets. It will be interesting to see how the banks will fare in 2019. After the impressive start to the year, the markets seem to consolidate and many a client will ponder whether to realize the gains.
Here’s the list of assets under management at Swiss private banks:
(Source: Annual reports 2017 and 2018, all numbers in billion Swiss francs, except UBS)
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