He belongs to the youngest generation of up-and-coming Swiss private bankers who already have an established track record. Fabian Kaeslin is taking over as CEO of a small private bank, that has expansion potential.

Swiss Fabian Kaeslin becomes CEO of Luxembourg-based Banque Havilland in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in early March, finews.com has learned. 

Banque Havilland is wholly owned by the Rowland family of British entrepreneurs, who have made billions of pounds in international real estate. The bank was created in Luxembourg in 2009 from the remains of Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank that collapsed in the 2008/2009 financial crisis.

Acquisition of Banque Pasche

It made its entry into the Swiss market in 2016 with the full acquisition of Geneva-based Banque Pasche, founded in 1885, having already acquired individual branches abroad starting in 2013. Banque Pasche was previously in trouble after getting ensnared in a maelstrom of a tax evasion and money laundering scheme, as reported by finews.com.

Today, Banque Havilland has branches and representative offices in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, London, Monaco, and Dubai, and says it has no legacy issues. According to estimates, the group manages the equivalent of around ten billion Swiss francs ($10.7 billion) in customer assets. The British branch is now to be closed and the clientele will be served from the remaining locations.

Seeking Experienced Advisors

Kaeslin will take over responsibility for Banque Havilland in Liechtenstein, which also services Switzerland from an office in Zurich. In total, this group unit employs around 30 people.

He succeeds Zorica Lipovac, who took over on an interim basis after Marc Arand took over as group head of Banque Havilland in Luxembourg at the beginning of April 2022. With this commitment, Banque Havilland (Liechtenstein), which has so far been rather little known in the industry, is announcing its intention to grow via its two locations in Vaduz and Zurich.

«My goal is to attract additional experienced client advisors and to grow significantly in the international, traditionally cross-border markets,» Kaeslin told finews.com. The bank also has a comparatively large range of financial and financing services, which is unusual for an institution of its size.

Luxembourg and Chinese Shareholders

The 36-year-old Kaeslin belongs to the youngest generation of up-and-coming Swiss private bankers. He was most recently CFO and chief operating officer (COO) of Luxembourg-based Banque International à Luxembourg in Switzerland (BIL Suisse). In this dual role, he was largely responsible for the successful realignment of the bank which is now under Chinese control.

He previously held various senior positions at Bank Julius Baer in Latin America and EMEA. He started his career some 15 years ago at UBS.

Youngest CEO Private Bank CEO in Switzerland

As with his former boss Boris Collardi, Kaeslin is likely to be the youngest CEO of a private bank in Switzerland. Like Collardi when he took over the management of Bank Julius Baer at 34, they were around the same age when they assumed the CEO mantle.