The Swiss private bank held its own last year. A rise in profits masks its fight to stanch withdrawals – while also future-proofing itself.
Maerki Baumann more than doubled its net profit last year to 6.2 million Swiss francs ($6.4 million), according to its annual report released on Friday. The rise was mainly due to a one-time dividend of 3.3 million francs from Swiss stock exchange SIX, of which the private bank is member.
Led 41-year-old Stefan Zwahlen, Maerki Baumann steeled itself against the prevailing downward trend for wealth managers in Switzerland: it invested to ramp up its capabilities in cryptocurrencies, and plans to begin offering trading and custody of digital assets and tokens shortly.
Bleeding Assets
The bank said it will later this year evaluate if and how to expand its offering of crypto investments. Maerki Baumann, founded in 1932, is taking a receptive stance on digital assets in order to establish new client relationships –including younger prospective clients.
The strategy hasn't trickled through to its assets thus far: while they rose by 1.3 billion francs to 8.5 billion francs, the main contributor was favorable market performance last year on existing assets. It won new money mainly from its real estate investment offering.
However, the bank is still suffering withdrawals: last year, clients pulled 101 million francs, mainly due to Maerki Baumann's relinquishing foreign markets due to rising regulatory requirements.
