According to a statement, the LLB Group generated a net profit of 105.0 million francs in the first half of 2026. This represents an increase of 15.3 percent compared with the same period of the previous year.

Operating income rose by 0.9 percent to 315.5 million francs. At the same time, operating expenses fell by 6.8 percent to 190.6 million francs. As a result, the cost-income ratio improved significantly from 65.7 to 59.5 percent.

Strong Net New Money

Business volume reached 132.1 billion francs at the end of June, 5.0 percent above the level at the end of 2025. Assets under management increased by 5.6 percent to a record 115.0 billion francs.

Net new money developed particularly strongly, rising from 1.39 billion to 2.23 billion francs. This corresponds to an annualized growth rate of 4.1 percent. According to LLB, the inflows were spread across both market divisions and the booking centers in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Austria.

The group also returned to growth in its lending business following the «profitability optimization» of its loan book in the previous year. Net new loans amounted to 211 million francs, compared with a decline of 239 million francs in the first half of 2025.

«The fact that we were able to improve our result despite a challenging market environment while simultaneously becoming more efficient demonstrates the strength of our business model,» said Georg Wohlwend, chairman of the board of directors of LLB.

Commission Business Offsets Interest Rate Pressure

The services and commission business grew by 5.9 percent, supported by higher volumes. LLB also benefited from a temporary increase in trading activity in the spring amid geopolitical tensions.

By contrast, the low interest rate environment for the Swiss franc weighed on the interest business. The decline was offset by the group's more broadly diversified revenue base. Other income was 9.4 million francs higher than in the previous year, mainly due to income from a brokerage agreement related to the strategic withdrawal from the Middle East business. The group recognized provisions of 4.7 million francs for risk provisioning.

Smaller Workforce

The decline in costs of around 14 million francs was partly attributable to base effects. In the previous year, one-off integration costs related to the acquisition of ZKB Austria had weighed on expenses. Personnel expenses were also lower after the group realized synergies and reduced its workforce.

Compared with June 2025, the workforce declined by around 60 full-time positions. Accordingly, personnel expenses fell by 8.1 percent to 119.9 million francs.

Capitalization remained robust, although the Tier 1 ratio declined from 19.0 percent at the end of 2025 to 18.5 percent. Return on equity increased from 8.1 to 8.8 percent.

The market environment is expected to remain challenging in the coming months, with geopolitical and economic uncertainties persisting. Against this backdrop, the LLB Group is maintaining the guidance it issued in February and expects a solid result for the full year 2026.