Ski resorts in sights of Swiss banks pursuing wealthy clients

By Noele Illien

ZURICH (Reuters) -High in the Swiss Alps, a battle for wealthy clients heated up on Thursday as EFG poached private banking teams from Credit Suisse in two of Switzerland's most exclusive ski resorts.

The private banking position of Switzerland's largest lender UBS in well-to-do Alpine towns had been strengthened significantly since it took over Credit Suisse in March last year, prompting other rivals to respond.

EFG said that since the start of the year, Stephan Uebersax, formerly the regional head for Credit Suisse, was leading a team of nine in St. Moritz, while in Gstaad, another Credit Suisse veteran, Manuel Blanco, heads up 11 employees.

Ski resorts like St. Moritz, where according to RealAdvisor a square metre of land costs more than 16,000 Swiss francs ($18,817), are a winter playground for the world's wealthy, making them attractive hunting grounds for private banks.

Some have sought to capitalise on the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, especially where clients want to diversify away from the combined entity.

Julius Baer last year said it saw inflows increase in the months following the Credit Suisse tie-up.

Pictet too has gained clients, an executive told a Swiss newspaper this week. It pulled in more than 15 billion francs of new money in the first half of 2023, the bank reported.

EFG's head of Switzerland and Italy, Franco Polloni, told Reuters the bank started to explore developing business in St. Moritz and Gstaad by sponsoring festivals and tournaments.

That foothold helped EFG seize the opportunity to poach the Credit Suisse teams, Polloni said.

"People knew us, that we were not there just for fun, but that it is a strategic move for us," he said.

Clients often follow their wealth managers when they leave a bank, but a spokesperson for UBS said the gaps at both locations had been replaced with experienced advisers.

"We could keep all our clients in St. Moritz and Gstaad," the spokesperson told Reuters.

The new EFG locations officially opened to clients on Jan. 3 and EFG's CEO Giorgio Pradelli said its aim is to build the bank's brand internationally in the next few years.

"Our default growth is organic, which is based and predicated on hiring good people," Pradelli said, adding EFG was also open to other types of growth.

"We have excess capital, so we could do M&A."

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EFG reported in November that it had 144 billion Swiss francs in assets under management. On average, wealth managers at EFG manage a portfolio of 300 million francs, the bank said.

($1 = 0.8503 Swiss francs)