The Liechtenstein private bank wasn't among the major beneficiaries of the bank run at Credit Suisse. But VP Bank is hoping a second wave of client funds will wash up on its shores.
Thomas Meier, the Swiss chairman of Liechtenstein-based VP Bank, is hoping for asset inflows from former Credit Suisse clients. Following last March's bank run culminating in the forced takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, he said Credit Suisse clients are now looking for new custodians.
«We hope to become part of this redistribution,» Meier said at a press conference on the mid-year figures on Thursday.
Avoiding Cluster Risks
Meier believes a «second wave» of Credit Suisse funds will materialize, an idea described to finews.com by Julius Baer chairman Romeo Lacher. After merging with UBS, Credit Suisse clients are potentially facing cluster risk for their wealth and considering moving their assets to other managers.
During the first half, the Liechtenstein institution seemingly didn't benefit from former Credit Suisse clients bringing their money to the bank. VP attracted 100 million Swiss francs of new money during that time as «forced outflows» of 300 million from its business with Russian clients weighed on the 400 million that came in, as finews.com reported yesterday. Last year it added just over a billion francs in new money.
Notably, LGT, another Liechtenstein institution, brought in 15.8 billion during the first six months, pushing its assets under management to a record 305.8 billion francs. To be sure, LGTs AuM is more than six times that of VP's 47.2 billion but suggests the former benefitted from Credit Suisse clients moving money while the latter didn't.
Further Russian Outflows
VP Bank no longer accepts clients with a connection to Russia, and the business considered effectively blocked since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the numerous sanctions against Russian individuals and companies. It assumes it will take another 600 million hit on new money flows from Russian clients in the second half of the year.
