Swiss Private Banking Wins Big and Worries More
The 2025 Wealth Management Summit crowned new private-banking champions, yet the applause faded into uneasy questions about stagnant client inflows, high costs, and whether Swiss wealth management truly has a strategy for the modern era.
About 150 executives from Switzerland’s and Liechtenstein's private banking and wealth management industry gathered last week at the Zunfthaus zur Meisen in Zurich for the annual summit hosted by Fin21, the research initiative led by Professor Christian «Chris» Künzle, together with finews.ch (impressions of the event).
The accompanying study introduced a new distinction between institutions with more than 20 billion francs in client assets and those below that threshold. The resulting set of winners was led by overall champion Goldman Sachs (see finews.ch’s reporting).
The Winners…
Award winners in the single categories among the large banks were:
- Strongest Growing: Goldman Sachs
- Best Capitalized: Scobag
- Most Prosperous: Mirabaud
- Most Efficient: Scobag
and among the smaller banks (<20 billion francs in assets under management):
- Strongest Growing: Credinvest Bank
- Most Prosperous: MBaer
- Most Efficient: BZ Bank
- Best Capitalized: BG Private Bank
Goldman Sachs' Global Muscle
The composition of winners underscored how differently success can manifest across the landscape. Goldman Sachs Bank’s newly appointed General Manager for Switzerland, Pascal Meinherz, noted that clients in Switzerland are buying into the firm’s full global market access, reminding the audience that of the company’s 1.8 trillion dollars in wealth management assets, a significant portion is invested in private markets.
Mirabaud’s Zurich branch manager Michael Hoesli pointed to the Geneva firm’s disciplined focus on profitability, emphasizing that the bank had never recorded a loss in its 206-year history.
Exceptionalism of Different Kinds
Scobag, the Basel-based private bank, offered a different kind of exceptionalism. With 749 million francs in assets per full-time employee, it topped the entire efficiency ranking; yet its representative, Felix Lopez, remained notably reserved when asked to elaborate. The bank’s long-standing mandate for significant parts of the Oeri and Hoffmann family wealth remained an unspoken backdrop.
MBaer Merchant Bank, praised for its prosperity metrics, stands in yet another situation: regulatory matters currently underway had not been visible in the 2024 financials on which this year’s ranking was based.
Chris Künzle: «1.5 Percent NNM is Really a Stagnation»
In other words, several standout performers are more singular case studies than templates for the broader industry.
Künzle made a similar point, albeit analytically, in his introductory remarks. Reviewing industry-wide data, he noted that median net new money as a percentage of assets under management was even lower than the year before: «1.5 percent only is really a stagnation».
Median FTE Personnel Expenses: 271,000 Francs
He paired this with a reminder of the sector’s structural cost base, observing that Swiss private banking was «basically running a farming business, and we’re paying ourselves 271,000 francs to do that», referring to the median personnel expense across the 69 banks in the study (up from 260,000 francs in the previous year).
What followed on stage carried the same tension forward: remarkable outperformance in some pockets, but little sign of a broad-based upswing.
Searching for a New Strategic Foothold
The panel, moderated by finews.asia’s Claude Baumann, brought together Roger Furrer (ERI Bancaire), Patrik Spiller (Deloitte), Jacopo Zamboni (Henley & Partners), Manuel Fuchs (Invesco), Grégoire Tribolet (Schellenberg Wittmer), and Thomas Bossard (Stellar Executive Search).
A significant part of the discussion addressed whether technology — and AI in particular – could provide Swiss private banking with its next strategic foothold. Several panelists maintained that the future lies in a hybrid model in which digital tools augment, but do not replace, the relationship manager.
Balancing Digital and Human Excellence
Roger Furrer argued that «if you don't have for Generation Z a very good mobile access or e-banking platform, they don't like to stay in your bank», while Patrik Spiller pointed to the looming generational transfer of wealth, warning that «up to 70 percent of the heirs will switch their bank», before adding that «the future lies in a hybrid model, digital excellence in process and really human excellence in relationship».
He added that tasks which previously required an hour of preparation for a client meeting could increasingly be handled by AI in the background.
Headhunter Thomas Bossard described himself as «team human capital», noting that «innovation is now built on partnerships and ecosystems, and of course, new profiles are coming up». According to him, some relationship managers devote as much as 70 percent of their time to activities without direct revenue impact – resources that could be freed up by AI.
A Note of Caution
Invesco's Manuel Fuchs stressed that even in asset management, and particularly in the Swiss context, human bonds remain central.
And Jacopo Zamboni, whose firm Henley & Partners serves a client base overlapping significantly with private banks, added that first-contact clients have become wary of being advised by a robot. On a cautionary note, he remarked that compliance service providers deploying AI had so far become slower rather than faster.
Are Digital Assets a Lifeline?
Digital assets and cryptocurrencies surfaced briefly in the discussion. While cryptocurrencies have become an accepted portfolio component in Swiss private banking, the country’s early lead is no longer unquestioned. Jurisdictions such as Portugal were mentioned as having moved faster in several respects.
«It's very good news that we have seen the Federal Council now publishing a project for developments in this area, with new licensing categories for crypto institutions», said lawyer Grégoire Tribolet, while adding that «data confidentiality, data security is still very important, obviously, for the clients».
Toward the end, Claude Baumann asked a question that has followed the sector ever since banking secrecy for tax purposes was dismantled: had Switzerland, more than ten years on, found a convincing strategic alternative? The seconds of silence that followed spoke louder than the answers that eventually came.
Celebrate Success where it Appears
The panelists pointed to priorities in their own domains, yet none offered a coherent sector-wide strategy. The impression of secular stagnation, first suggested by the study’s numbers, lingered over the exchange.
Yet as the formal program concluded and the Apéro riche began, the tone shifted back to the studied composure of an industry accustomed to long transitions — and one that remains fully able to recognize and celebrate success where it appears.
