UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse will further reduce the number of large international private banks in Brazil. Julius Baer has been quick to take advantage of this.

Julius Baer wins the category best for philanthropic services in Asia this year. For starters, the firm doubled the number of philanthropy advisory mandates in 2022.

Julius Baer and the team led by Jimmy Lee, member of the executive board and head of Asia Pacific, look at the future in rather pragmatic terms: if you can’t predict it, why not at least do business with those most likely to shape it?

Keep it simple: that is how Julius Baer approaches the pursuit of private banking. That is not to say that what it does is easy.

The echoes of 2014 have been loud in Brazil’s private banking industry over the past 12 months. A precipitous fall in interest rates – followed by a meteoric rise – has left the market completely the same but also very different.

Pure-play Swiss private bank Julius Baer has had to reconfigure its business model for the 2020s. Chief executive Philipp Rickenbacher talks to Euromoney about why scale and nurturing talent are key to the long-term success of a firm that does just one thing and one thing well: serving wealthy private clients.

The Swiss firm’s decision to sell specialist Zurich-based wealth manager Wergen & Partner is the latest in a series of M&A deals. Expect more activity as private banks expand into new markets, or exit non-core markets to focus resources and invest in technology.

The last 20 years of private banking have been all about building scale, international growth and professionalization; the top wealth managers are still getting bigger and are confident they have the right model – but as they struggle to maintain quality of service under pressure on revenues, new specialists are emerging.

In wealth management circles, the shock isn’t so much that Collardi has moved – rather, it’s the rival he has moved to.

Julius Baer’s strategy of commitment, investment and hiring – when many of its peers have been retreating – has enabled the bank to become a global leader in wealth management.

Hiring more than anyone else in the wealth management industry and hoovering up the assets of failing competitors, Julius Baer is going head-to-head with its two larger Swiss competitors in Asia and Europe. Given CEO Boris Collardi’s tenacity, if the markets go his way, he may just pull it off.

Julius Baer to take profits hit due to high CHF cost exposure, say analysts.

Geopolitics, epidemics, the media… Burkhard Varnholt, CIO and head of investment solutions at Julius Baer, shares his firm's views on risks for the year ahead.

Investors baulk at part of rights issue; Collardi talks up transformational deal

COO Boris Collardi explains how his bank has gained momentum by doing the little things well.