Asia’s wealthy turn to Switzerland to park assets

(EPA/JONATHAN DRAKE

Swiss private banks report rising demand from Asian family offices and rich individuals to book assets in Europe.

Swiss private banks are expanding their Asia-focused teams onshore in Switzerland, after a sharp rise in referrals and inquiries from the region during the past two years.

Bankers said Asian family offices and ultra-wealthy individuals were increasingly shifting their money to Switzerland, seeking direct relationships and a haven for assets including physical gold in vaults.

Clients want their investments to be legally booked and held in Switzerland even if they live and work elsewhere, the bankers said.

Switzerland has held its ground as the world’s pre-eminent haven despite years of predictions that the erosion of bank secrecy and international pressure on offshore finance would diminish its status.

The country remained the top hub for offshore wealth in 2024, with $2.74tn in assets under management, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Rival centres including Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai have been growing faster in recent years. Hong Kong had $2.65tn in assets under management last year, according to BCG, while Singapore had $1.92tn.

But the two Asian centres have become vital hunting grounds for Swiss private banks, serving as fast-growing sources of new clients, and many of those assets ultimately flow back to Switzerland.

The number of deposits by residents of Hong Kong and Singapore has shot up in recent years, according to data from the BIS and SNB.

The majority of clients continue to book in Asia, but the percentage interested in Switzerland is increasing, said Omar Shakur, chief executive for Asia private clients at Lombard Odier, the private bank.

“In the past, very few clients were requesting additional booking in Switzerland. Now more and more are asking if they can book in Switzerland. This is the new dimension starting,” he said.

The shift marks a break from a decade in which proximity and convenience had made Hong Kong and Singapore the natural hubs for Asian wealth.

Many Swiss banks expanded in Asia over the past two to three decades to serve the region’s growing number of wealthy, helping pioneer the private bank model in the region.

But bankers say political shocks across the region such as the imposition of a strict new national security law in Hong Kong in 2019, followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have heightened concerns among Asia’s rich about the security of their assets.

Christian Cappelli, head of the Asia desk at Julius Baer in Zurich, said that back in 2010 the requirement of Asian clients to book in Switzerland was “very small”.

“There was no benefit. Booking in a place such as Singapore was just as good,” he said. That has changed since 2019, he said.

“Clients increasingly felt that geopolitically things were less predictable, and therefore it was important to have assets in different jurisdictions,” Cappelli said.

Christian Frie, head of Asia-Pacific business in Switzerland for LGT Private Banking, said Switzerland had become the “booking centre of choice” for Asian clients outside the region.

“Most Asian clients we see allocate around 10 to 15 per cent of their assets outside of the region and in some cases more. When they choose a place outside of Asia, they tend to pick Switzerland,” Frie said.

Another executive for a Swiss private bank said the non-dom tax rules in London had reduced the UK’s appeal for Asian clients who had long been drawn there especially for their real estate portfolios. “Switzerland was a beneficiary of that,” the person said.

Banks have expanded their Asia desks in Switzerland in response.

Julius Baer has had an Asia desk onshore in Switzerland since the 1990s but has stepped up hiring significantly since 2022. UBS’s Asia desk now has more than 100 people, according to people familiar with the matter, while LGT’s Asia desk has increased from fewer than 10 people in 2023 to nearly 30 across Zurich and Geneva.

Frank Niedermann, UBS’s head of wealth management for Asia-Pacific Switzerland, said some family offices from Hong Kong and Singapore now “want an Asia and a European HQ”.

But he cautioned that part of Switzerland’s allure still required demystifying. “There is that magic of a Swiss account but we need to explain what that actually means,” he said.

“We know, for example, when it comes to equity trading we cannot be competitive with places like Hong Kong because of the stamp duty. But there are other strengths.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025