The sixth Private Banking Day organized today by the ABPS and the ABG focused on the future of the wealth management industry in Switzerland.
The sixth Private Banking Day organized today by the ABPS and the ABG focused on the future of the wealth management industry in Switzerland. Senior officials from the private banking sector, politicians and the administration discussed the means and framework conditions necessary to enable the branch to maintain its number one position, as well as the quality criteria that private banking should bear Swiss.
For decades, Switzerland has been the financial center of reference for wealth management in all four corners of the world. In the past, our financial center has successfully met various major challenges, and other no less crucial ones await. In addition to the growing competition between international financial centers, digitization, sustainability and the resulting change in customer behavior play a decisive role in the sustainability of the industry.
In his welcome speech, Philipp Rickenbacher, President of ABG and CEO of the Julius Baer Group, underlined the need for players to combine agility and strong Swiss values in this period of uncertainty and upheaval. The branch cannot afford to rest on its laurels. However, it has already demonstrated that it is capable of change, in the context of fundamental regulatory transformation as well as the transparent treatment of the past. Switzerland must now better highlight this development and defend itself resolutely once morest unjustified attacks on its financial centre. Regarding Switzerland’s neutrality, Philipp Rickenbacher indicated that, in a world of conflicting blocs, it is more and more like a balancing act. It is nevertheless important, according to him, that Switzerland pursues a policy of sanctions which is specific to it and which respects the principles of law. Finally, Philipp Rickenbacher pleaded for the banking sector, which still does not have access to the EU market, to also be included in the negotiation package with the EU. He ended with a call to aggressively tackle a series of complex topics such as sustainable finance, digitization or digital assets, in the interests of clients. This is the only way to guarantee the sustainability of the branch in the future.
In connection with the theme of the day, the President of the Confederation Ignazio Cassis underlined in his video intervention that Switzerland has weathered the coronavirus crisis well overall, in particular because branches such as wealth management have been able to successfully meet the challenge of remaining “the best”. With regard to the war in Ukraine, he indicated that the policy of neutrality is not synonymous with indifference and that it must adapt to realities, in the sense of cooperative neutrality. Furthermore, the President of the Confederation referred to the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, which is supposed to kick off the reconstruction of Ukraine, and underlined the important role that the financial sector must play in this process.
Bringing an outsider’s perspective, futurist and author Magnus Lindkvist described the fundamental changes that future societal and economic trends will bring regarding. These changes are bound to have a great influence on the way companies in general and banks in particular will design their activities and their interaction with customers in the future.
In a high-level panel, Marc Bürki, CEO of Swissquote, Bertrand Demole, Vice-President of the ABPS and partner of the Pictet Group, Jos Dijsselhof, CEO of the SIX Group, and Giorgio Pradelli, member of the ABG Committee and CEO of EFG International, discussed the challenges and the future of Swiss private banking. It became clear that as a small open economy, Switzerland – like the wealth management industry – needs to be able to access large sales markets. Topics such as digitalization, cybersecurity, fintech and sustainability are becoming increasingly important for private banking and can become competitive advantages. At the same time, the Swiss financial center must be able to offer competitive framework conditions, especially in the tax area.
In his conclusion, Grégoire Bordier, Chairman of the ABPS and unlimited liability partner of Bordier & Cie, echoing the declarations of the first speaker, recalled that, in the past already, the foundation of the Swiss financial center was not banking secrecy, but its solidity and quality, as well as the Swiss population, which together guarantee its stability. For Grégoire Bordier, the future will be mainly marked by technological progress and more particularly by the dematerialization of assets. This will inevitably have an impact on business models, more in the field of credit than in that of wealth management. In addition to geopolitical changes, Grégoire Bordier believes that new technologies will play a major role for the Swiss financial centre, which, thanks to its openness and international orientation, is perfectly equipped to meet these challenges.