has unveiled a plan to double its size in coming years, boosting
assets under management to CHF50 billion ($44 billion) by
2015.
Thierry Fauchier-Magnan, chairman of Mirabaud’s executive
committee declared, “We want to grow by 10 to 12 percent each year,
which equates to a doubling of client assets every 6 to 7 years.
This should take us to CHF50 billion in 2015.”
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
Still, Mirabaud, like a number of other private banks, had
somewhat of a setback in the opening six months of 2008, when
client assets, including those under custody, contracted to CHF24
billion from CHF25 billion at the end of 2007. Net new money grew
by a brisk CHF1 billion in the first half.
Attributing the overall fall in assets to “difficult markets,”
Mirabaud expects to see the total return to the CHF25 billion mark
by the year-end, in an announcement made during the unveiling of
its new offices in Geneva.
To attract talent at home and abroad, the Geneva bank, which is
based on an unlimited liability partnership structure, is to reform
its management approach.
Antonio Palma has been appointed as a new managing partner, and is
to start a review for an additional senior management structure “to
provide a platform for future growth”. Palma has worked at Mirabaud
since 1993.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataYves Mirabaud, a managing partner, said, “If we want to continue
developing the business, we must regularly reflect on whether our
management structures can achieve growth. Total assets under
management have increased six-fold in 12 years, but we will not see
them grow… to CHF50 billion with our current organisational
structure”.
Mirabaud is regarded as one of Geneva’s success stories in moving
away from the old Swiss offshore private banking model, and has
been expanding internationally in order to build links with the new
wealthy in Asia and elsewhere.
It has built a 10-strong office network, comprising Zurich, Basel,
Paris, Monaco, London, Montreal, Nassau, Hong Kong, and Dubai as
well as Geneva.
Yves Mirabaud, speaking to PBI, said his bank, despite expansion,
would remain very client focused, saying that about 60 to 70
percent of the bank staff are client-facing. Mirabaud plans to
expand its workforce to around 500 by the end of 2008 compared with
the current 482, itself up 5 percent on 2006. Of the current
employee total, 285 are in Switzerland.
Mirabaud said that his bank was attracting talent from its larger
rivals Credit Suisse and UBS at time of concern over the global
credit crisis.
But he stressed: “We are not pushing aggressively to get their
people although we think that we will be an extremely successful
place for them.”
Mirabaud also defended Swiss banking secrecy which is again under
pressure from its neighbours.
Earlier in the year his colleague Pierre Mirabaud, head of the
Swiss Bankers Association, launched a scathing attack on German
investigations into alleged tax fraud in Liechtenstein.
“Privacy is extremely important and we will fight to protect
clients,” Yves Mirabaud declared.
Switzerland would listen to European Union requests to tighten up
its Savings Tax Directive, which clearly has a number of
“loopholes,” but would not discuss exchange of information, he
said.
Switzerland is one of several countries that decided to opt for
imposing a withholding tax on savings of EU citizens, rather than
the other option – giving other countries information on client
holdings.
