Swiss banks continue their balancing act

Despite rising costs, declining revenue and increased regulation, banks in Switzerland can still make money in asset management, said Boris Collardi of bank Julius Baer on Saturday. But a US court decision showed there will be further hurdles for Credit Suisse.

Customers with comparatively low fortunes of a few hundred thousand Swiss francs are turning their backs on Swiss banks, said Boris Collardi, head of bank Julius Baer, in an interview published on Saturday in the newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

Collardi believes that very wealthy customers will remain true to the country, however, because they appreciate the high quality of service and security they receive.

“For me, Switzerland is still the clear leader as a centre for international asset management,” Collardi told the NZZ. “Nowhere in Europe will investors get such good service.”

Collardi minimized the importance of competition provided by banks in Singapore, saying that for Europeans the country is too far away. For Julius Baer, Switzerland will always remain the heart of the company, he said.

Meanwhile Switzerland’s second largest bank, Credit Suisse, received bad news from abroad on Thursday when a New York Supreme Court judge declined to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the bank by New York’s attorney general. The lawsuit, which calls for as much as $10 billion (CHF9.88 billion) in damages, accuses the bank of fraud in the sale of mortgage-backed securities.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

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