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Blackrock’s ETF business in Switzerland has been hit by a new wave of departures. The London headquarters is one of the factors influencing the moves, according to information obtained by finews.com.

iShares, which sells so-called exchange-traded funds (ETFs), had seen a number of experienced managers leave in 2018. Now, a new wave of departures has emerged. «Inside Paradeplatz» reported that the sales team, which once included 15 members of staff, had shrunk to eight.

Some of the ex-iShares-staff will soon start in new jobs at other companies. Vontobel confirmed, that one of iShares experts will start at the financial products division in July. Another is set to begin at Amundi, the French fund provider. Amundi is also where Marco Strohmeier works, who used to be deputy head of iShares Switzerland.

Since our last report on iShares in April, the team has dwindled by five members.

Experts Are Sought After

The departures have caught the attention among rivals in this well-connected industry. Blackrock is a big player in Switzerland. iShares was basically built from scratch and developed a fair amount of expertise and market presence in its short period of existence.

Supported by a surging interest in passively managed products, Blackrock attracted billions of francs from pension funds, banks, fintechs and wealth managers based in Switzerland.

Several sources now claim that there is hardly anybody left at the ETF powerhouse.

Building Its Banking Team

Blackrock Switzerland confirmed the size of the team reported by «Inside Paradeplatz». The company seems fairly relaxed about the departures, saying that its experts were much sought after in the market. Departures were not unusual following a change at the top, the company added and claimed it had no problems attracting well-qualified members of staff.

Mark Vallon, who used to work for Bellevue Asset Management, will join Blackrock in June as leader of the team taking care of banks. The company will add a further four people at the Zurich office and one in Geneva to boost his team’s size to 14.

Dramatic or Not

Several mutually independent sources described the situation as being far more dramatic than Blackrock would say. The departures by experienced members of staff had affected the level of service and the daily business, the sources claimed.

ETFs may appear easy to manage, but in reality the distribution of the product requires expert knowledge, not least because the main customers are financial experts themselves.

Blackrock doesn’t see any negative effects on its business in Switzerland. While it doesn’t provide any detailed figures for the Swiss business, the company still confirmed that Switzerland was a core market for iShares and that growth was in the double-digits.

It also said that it had a good start in 2019. iShares globally attracted $31 billion dollars in assets in the first quarter. Switzerland had contributed significantly.

A Tougher Management Style?