Zurich laments departure of Bank Vontobel

The City of Zurich regrets the departure of Bank Vontobel Keystone-SDA

Vontobel Bank is turning its back on Zurich after more than 100 years. But the city does not expect an exodus of financial companies.

A spokesperson for the Zurich city finance department, told Keystone-SDA regretted the bank leaving for canton Zug.

The bank’s decision to keep its part of its business in Zurich with 300 staff demonstrates “the important of the city centre and its excellent infrastructure,” she added.

Bank Vontobel has announced that it will relocate its headquarters from Zurich to Baar, canton Zug.

More than 1,500 staff, who are currently spread across seven buildings in Zurich, will work together on a new campus.

“Over the last ten years, only one of the top 50 companies has relocated to a canton with a more favourable tax regime,” said the Zurich spokeswoman. This does not indicate a trend of large companies moving away.

The tax question

Bank Vontobel insisted that is not moving to reduce its tax bill.

Zurich’s corporate tax revenue has risen by over 25% in the last five years. The number of legal entities in the canton of Zurich has increased by more than 30% over the last ten years.

In the city of Zurich, the number of companies has even doubled over the past 25 years. These include firms such as La Prairie and Beiersdorf, which have relocated their headquarters to Zurich.

Furthermore, many companies have spent several hundred million Swiss francs renovating and expanding their headquarters in the city of Zurich in recent years. Zurich cites ABB in Oerlikon as the most recent example.

Christian Bretscher, managing director of the Zurich Banking Association, told Swiss public broadcaster SRF that while regretting the decision, he also understood the reasoning behind it.

Building restrictions in Zurich make it difficult to convert buildings to specific use cases within a reasonable timeframe. It is also well known that Zurich is “highly unattractive” for companies from a tax perspective, Bretscher added.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.