Swiss private bank Maerki Baumann increased its profits helped by higher interest income. A board member will be stepping down.
Zurich-based private bank Maerki Baumann reported a profit of 8.515 million Swiss francs ($9.3 million) last year from 7.721 a year earlier, despite a decrease in revenue-generating client assets, according to annual results released on Tuesday.
The increased profits came despite a decline in client assets under management to 9.156 billion Swiss francs last year from 10.26 billion the year before. Still, the firm's net commission and services income rose slightly to 35.178 million last year compared to 34.114 the year before.
Helped by Interest Income
Interest income at the bank more than doubled to 8.546 million in 2022, from 3.532 million the year before, no doubt helped by the Swiss National Bank exiting its policy of negative interest rates last year.
Operating expenses increased to just over 38 million francs from 33.6 million in 2021, while the number of full-time employees rose to 83 last year from 73 the year before.
Board Member Stepping Down
The bank announced that Bruno Gehrig will remain on the board of Maerki Baumann on which he served since 2014, until this year's annual general meeting. He was the former vice-chairman of the Swiss National Bank and a longstanding chairman of the board of directors of Swiss Life.
Gehrig is replaced by Joerg Zulauf who will also become the chairman of the audit and risk committee. From 2000 until 2021, he was vice-chairman of the executive board and head of the finance department at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives.
