Private Banking: Conservative Financial Investments Predominate
7th Private Banking Summit
2 and 4 September 2008, Renaissance Zurich Hotel
The financial market crisis is also having an impact on asset management, the special expertise of Swiss banks. Customers are withdrawing from transactions and reverting to conservative investments. Even large banks are not exempt from this development and sometimes are forced to accept losses in the billions of francs. Attempts are now being made to minimize these by increasing the share capital: the major Swiss bank, UBS, for example, just smoothly completed its second increase in share capital since the onset of the subprime crisis, in the amount almost 16 billion francs (nearly ten billion euros). Other banks are taking advantage of the crisis:
"We want to rigorously exploit the opportunities for non-cyclical growth the movements on the market have created. For this reason we are planning to expand our customer service team by up to 100 consultants across the entire Sarasin Group," explains Joachim H. Straehle, CEO of Sarasin Bank. (www.moneycab.de, 4/6/08)
At the 7th Private Banking Summit (2–4 September 2008, Zurich) Sarasin’s head, Straehle, will explain to about 200 participants whether sustainable investments are worthwhile and how responding quickly to a changing general situation makes companies successful. More than 30 international key players such as Chris M. Meares (HSBC Group), Raoul Weil (UBS) and Robert Parker (Credit Suisse) will present papers about the challenges for the private banking sector at the English-language summit. The programme can be accessed on the Internet at www.private-banking-summit.com
The Significance Of Trusts In Switzerland
In the Swiss banking business, a trust constitutes a well-known and widely spread legal relationship of great economic importance. Yet even after the ratification of the Hague Trust Convention some issues are still obscure. For this reason the third day of the Private Banking Summit will be dedicated to the legal, financial and tax issues that are still not resolved yet as well as to the relevance of trusts for the "family office". Other papers will provide information about trust markets in Germany, France and Asia.
FINMA: Switzerland’s Answer To The Financial Crisis
The expectations - from politics, supervisory authorities and rating agencies – have increased on an international level. For Switzerland as a financial centre it is important to play in the premier supervisory league; for this reason the government’s supervision of banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries is to be centralized in a single supervisory institution for the financial market (FINMA). In addition to the Swiss Banking Commission (EBK) and the National Bureau of Private Insurance Companies (BPV) the Control Board for Fighting Money Laundering will also be integrated in this new agency. Dr. Eugen Haltiner (chairman of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission) will discuss whether FINMA is going to meet these high expectations at the Private Banking Summit.
Further topics at the established banking summit will be the international competition, strategies for niche markets as well as successful models in asset management.
Contact:
Claudia Büttner
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presse@euroforum.ch
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