UBP Says Earnings Will Be Hurt by SNB Franc Move, Negative Rates
(Bloomberg) — Union Bancaire Privee, the Geneva-based wealth manager founded by Edgar De Picciotto, said the Swiss National Bank’s decision to abandon its currency cap and introduce negative interest rates will hurt profit.
The SNB’s recent decisions “will have an adverse impact on our foreign currency income in 2015 and therefore compels us to look at our income forecast for 2015 and to factor in some adjustments,” Chief Executive Officer Guy de Picciotto said in a statement Tuesday.
Assets under management rose to 98.7 billion Swiss francs ($110 billion) at the end of 2014, up 12.5 percent from a year earlier, UBP said. Net income increased 8.6 percent to 165 million francs.
The franc has surged since the Swiss central bank earlier this month scrapped its limit on the currency’s strength versus the euro and increased its charge on sight deposits. Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, on Jan. 19 said profit may be hurt by currency swings.
To contact the reporter on this story: Cindy Roberts in Zurich at croberts100@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elisa Martinuzzi at emartinuzzi@bloomberg.net Steve Bailey
