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Wealth management has advanced to a priority for CEOs like Goldman Sachs' David Solomon or Deutsche Bank's Christian Sewing, who both want a fix to the lumpiness and cyclical nature of their investment banking arms. This is drawing potential buyers to Switzerland, which remains the world's largest market for offshore wealth management.

The super-rich and their families who already bank in Switzerland are also frequently toying with buying their own firm: Asian billionaires often have a Swiss or Liechtenstein bank on their shopping list, Chinese banker Nick Xiao told finews.com last year.

European Projects

The common link between the most recent buyers – Intesa Sanpaolo, Quintet, and Oddo BHF – is a European vision: each want to build themselves into a leading wealth manager on the continent. «It [the acquisition of Reyl] also fits within the broader process of strengthening and repositioning of our private banking division’s foreign activities, especially in Switzerland, the leading market for international activities,» Tommaso Corcos said on Monday. He runs the the Italian lender's wealth management subsidiary. 

These drivers apply marginally or not at all for Swiss private banks themselves: they generally have a firm grasp on the domestic market and have at considerable expense purged their client books of undeclared money and criminal assets. If any Swiss wealth managers wanted to buy, they have had more than ample opportunity to do so: the saturation is likely another reason that Falcon persistently failed to find a buyer and is now itself winding down.

Genteel Conditions

The examples of Reyl, Bank am Bellevue, and Landolt & Cie illustrate that the pandemic is making the air thinner for smaller firms. Private banks with less than 5 billion francs in assets are in a danger zone, KPMG forecast last year. The surprising loss of independence at houses like Reyl and Landolt & Cie make clear that other, similar-sized private banks in Switzerland are tinkering with the same idea. 

Even more so when takeovers are conducted is as genteel conditions as those of Reyl and Landolt – the partners win a payout, but also remain in a strategic and leadership role in the new, foreign-controlled firm.