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Central banks have been active in the market, adding some 651 tons to their holdings last year. With plentiful supply available, the price is fairly stable still.

Private banks may want to have a look at the gold price as the commodity may stage yet another comeback, not least because of geopolitical uncertainties.

4. Exclusive Club Deals

Every private banker would offer his client club deals if he could. But it isn’t that simple because most wealth managers lack the know-how and expertise. Club deals are interesting investment opportunities because the private nature of the assets makes customers into owners of a club that holds an investment, often a property.

A real club deal doesn't charge fees as the provider is a co-investor. The seller of the product needs a certain degree of flexibility that not all firms can provide. Wealthy clients, however, don’t shy away from approaching specialist sellers of club deals and in the real estate industry, more and more wealth managers are active participants.

5. Tangible Experiences

Nowadays, clients won’t accept a perfectly designed asset allocation that only provides a risk profile and a list of anonymous investments. Wealthy clients, especially younger ones, demand to know how banks invest their money.

Banks and wealth managers need to turn an investment into a tangible experience for their clients. Many do so already through sustainable investment products. At the same time, clients aren’t ready to sift through mountains of documents to find out how their assets performed.

Even the reporting can be turned into an experience – if the right tools are applied.

6. New Networking Ideas

Private banks know that relationship managers are only as good as their book. The recent history of the industry shows however that bankers do well to create a true network of clients and to look for alternative investments collectively. Securitization or collective loans may be ways to make clients link up.

But the advantages of collective action aren’t restricted to the individual banker. The firms themselves also may benefit from pooling their resources to get a better deal from product providers. Together they can also generate the money needed to finance an investment product. One example is Hermance, a Geneva-based private equity boutique backed by three Swiss private banks: Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza, Bordier and Reyl.

7. Digitization as a Growth Provider

In the European Union, banks have to open their interfaces to third-party providers starting this fall. Experts believe that the change will initiate a new wave of digital development. The Swiss industry will likely have to follow suit even though the EU PSD2 rule doesn’t apply in Switzerland.

Private banks may profit from the change by integrating alternative products into the open platform, including crowd lending, robo advisory, real estate investments and cryptocurrencies.