Since joining KBL Bank as CEO, Juerg Zeltner has quickly moved to implement his plans. His swift actions may however get held back slightly by a more moderate approach of a key supplier of his company.

Juerg Zeltner’s plans for Luxembourg-based KBL are very ambitious. To simply grow however isn’t what he’s after – the ex-UBS manager wants the expansion of his new business quickly.

Zeltner will use two measures to achieve his goal of fast growth: one the hand, KBL will add new relationship managers and on the other, it seeks to introduce cutting-edge technology. When the Swiss banker was still with UBS, he was also working hard to present a more unified IT infrastructure at the giant bank.

A Rival as IT Provider

At KBL, where Zeltner also is invested with his own money, he inherited a system designed specifically for a private bank. The company has been working with Geneva’s Lombard Odier since 2015 as an IT provider.

Lombard Odier has an IT platform dubbed G2, which has ten customers with 67 billion Swiss francs in assets under management and which has turned into a formidable revenue pillar for the company. Furthermore, G2 is a way for the bank to share its own IT costs with other firms.

Slow Implementation

Not all KBL units are however linked up to G2. Apart from the headquarters, the U.K.'s Brown Shipley and Puliaetco Dewaay with its Belgium and Luxembourg branches are on G2 – which amounts to two thirds of all employees of KBL. The bank currently is looking at the Dutch case.

This situation is probably not so much KBL’s choice but Lombard Odier’s specific business policy of quality over quantity. And it is also testimony to Patrick Odier, the senior managing partner, who for instance was pretty relaxed in the face of shrinking earnings in the first half of 2019.

Odier had told finews.com in an interview in January, that the bank wanted to consolidate the platform before taking further companies onboard. It was his way to make sure that the expectations of his clients could be met – a strategy of quality over volume.

Speed Is Key to Success

Zeltner and his team, with Swiss head Dagmar Kamber Borens at the forefront, may see the slower approach of Lombard Odier as a problem in their quest to quickly integrate the IT systems at KBL. The fractured nature of KBL’s IT is making a quick release of procedures and products more difficult.

Speed is everything at KBL. Three months after starting out at KBL, Zeltner already signed a contract to purchase Bank am Bellevue in Zurich, helping the firm to a foothold in one of Europe’s largest banking hub.

Brand Relaunch in 2020

The company also plans to relaunch its brand with a new name due in early 2020. It obviously will wish to give potential clients enough reasons to entrust their assets to the banking group.

Over at Lombard Odier, the quality of its platform has become an important part of its system. From being a mere cost factor, the IT system has turned into a money-spinning asset.

Satisfied Customer

A remarkable feat for sure, given that a lot of its competitors are talking about opening their systems to rival firms – only to be held back by a lack of trust and the insight that the potential clients may eventually have to write off their own expensive tools.

«Since commencing our partnership with Lombard Odier in 2014, we have achieved major strides in KBL’s ongoing digital transformation,» said Zeltner in an answer to finews.com. «We are pleased with this progress and look forward to continuing to work together.»