Switzerland's largest alliance of independent wealth managers is getting new leadership and charting a new course for the coming years.
Nicole Curti was elected as the new president of the Alliance of Swiss Wealth Managers (ASWM) Wednesday evening at an event in Zurich, where finews.com was the exclusive media partner of the event. The position was previously held by Kristian Bader who held the office for the previous three years.
A partner and managing director of Stanhope Capital Switzerland, Curti is also group chief operating officer and member of the executive committee. She joined the firm in 2008 after ten years with Lombard Odier having worked in Geneva, Zurich, Lugano, London and Amsterdam.
Three Priorities
At Stanhope, she is responsible for the international client team in Geneva, building the office into the group's second most important location after London. As president, Curti will focus on three main areas: sharing knowledge more widely among the membership, increasing cooperation in IT and settlement operations and raising the profile of independent asset managers in Switzerland.
As part of a rejuvenation of the alliance initiated in 2016 by Anthony Cagiati and Patrick Stauber, Curti was elected to the board as early as summer 2020.
New Vice President – New Board Members
The alliance elected a new vice president as well, tapping Andrea Hoeing (pictured above), who is currently chief operating officer of Crossinvest in Ticino. Additionally, he is deputy CEO of Crossinvest Zurich, having taken on that role in 2020. New board members are:
- Germaine Blum (Helvetic Trust)
- Hakan Sesle (Marcuard Heritage)
- Markus Wintsch (Swisspartners)
Bader, Markus Angst and Amaury Jordan are stepping down after coming to the end of their terms which are limited.
Upon its founding in 2016, the alliance consisted of 13 members, expanding to 37 independent managers currently in all parts of Switzerland. ASWM represents 103 billion Swiss francs ($106.1 billion) in client assets, while employing in total 1,120 people.
Best Custodian Banks
Originally, the alliance wanted to celebrate its fifth anniversary already last year, but this was not possible due to the Corona pandemic. The ASWM now made up for this on Wednesday and also awarded prizes to what are considered to be the best custodian banks in Switzerland.
The 37 members selected a total of five winners, with Bank Vontobel coming out on top three times. The categories were as follows:
- End Client Servicing: Vontobel
- Relationship Management: Vontobel
- Operations and Technology: UBS
- Most Promising Custody Bank: J. Safra Sarasin
- Overall Excellence: Vontobel
