Bank Vontobel had a substantial increase in new money in the first nine months, giving CEO Zeno Staub confidence that his bank will continue to profit from an increase in investments going forward.

Zurich-based Vontobel has continued on its growth path over the first nine months of the year, adding an annualized 9 percent in net new money, substantially above the 4 to 6 percent target bracket of the company, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Vontobel in total attracted 12.9 billion Swiss francs ($14.1 billion) in the reporting period, with institutional clients in the asset management division giving a major boost with an increase of 10 percent year-on-year.

Satisfied About Profitability

The institutional business with external asset managers also outperformed, while wealth management clients added more than 6 percent in net new money – up from 1 percent at the end of June.

The bank now has a total in assets under management of 230 billion francs, which compares with 217.1 billion a year ago. Pretax profit developed to the company’s satisfaction, above last year’s figure, the company added.

Well Prepared for Second Wave

«Our result for the first nine months of this year shows that Vontobel remains on track, even during these exceptional times. As a pure-play investment firm, we were always at our clients’ side, offering them unlimited access to our investment expertise and our services, and we are well prepared for the second wave of the coronavirus that is unfolding. For the remainder of 2020 and beyond, we expect the pandemic and its economic consequences, as well as political uncertainty and the low-interest rate environment, to impact further on markets,» said Zeno Staub, CEO of Vontobel.

Committed to Its Targets

In such an environment, investing has become the new form of saving, he added. As a client-centric investment firm that makes targeted use of modern technology to ensure an outstanding client experience and professional investment processes, Vontobel will profit from this rising demand for investments.

«We remain committed to our targets for the current year and want to achieve growth even in this challenging market environment, as we underscored with the extension of our ambitious targets to 2022, as announced this summer,» the CEO said.