{"id":2340,"date":"2012-02-16T07:57:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T07:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sage.ch\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2018-02-02T16:21:42","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T15:21:42","slug":"sage-hosts-breakfast-briefing-in-geneva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/sage-hosts-breakfast-briefing-in-geneva\/","title":{"rendered":"SAGE Hosts Breakfast Briefing in Geneva"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jean-Luc Freymond<\/a>, CEO of SAGE Group SA<\/a>, was a member of the panel discussion of a Breakfast Briefing in Geneva last 8th February 2012; stressing on the importance of banking technology that will attract Asian bankers. JL Freymond explained that UHNWI in Asia, in general, are technologically savvy and are looking for systems that can offer them sophisticated products and provide them quick and efficient access to markets. He added that Swiss banks have to offer these new products in the face of Asian competition. \u00a0He also discussed the need for Swiss bankers to have more of an entrepreneurial spirit to compete with the Asian banks.<\/p>\n

Below is a summary of the discussion taken from an article<\/a> by S\u00e9bastien Ruche of L\u2019AGEFI:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BEYOND THE STUBBORN MYTHS ABOUT ASIA<\/b><\/p>\n

PRIVATE BANKING:\u00a0 Swiss banks must combine the threat of Asian competition and the attraction of the local market<\/p>\n

How can Swiss private banks counter the Asian threat?\u00a0 The conference organized yesterday in Geneva by WealthBriefing<\/a>\u00a0and Sage had enough interest in a financial place in deep reflection on its business model.\u00a0 But it had less questions about threats than opportunities.\u00a0 The Asian market has to be made part of the strategy of any Swiss institution \u2013 but not based on myths.<\/p>\n

The next threat, Hong Kong and Singapore, which have 11% of the world\u2019s offshore wealth, remains well behind Switzerland, which maintains its global leadership with a market share of 27% despite international pressure, reports Ian Woodhouse of PwC.\u00a0 Furthermore, Asian banks are not interested in European or Latin-American clients, says Antoine Bordelais, of Capital Private Wealth.\u00a0 \u201cTheir competition is growing in the Middle East, particularly for reasons of geographical closeness, and especially on their domestic markets, where they show very aggressively throughout the range of products, knowledge of the client, local presence and synergies with corporate banking–a key element for entrepreneurial clients.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The next opportunities, when approaching Asia, is to first dispel some myths, continues Michel Longhini, head of private banking at UBP.\u00a0 Asia is no longer an untouched market, but it is strongly covered by financial intermediaries, with two stable leaders \u2013 UBS and Credit Suisse.\u00a0 The creation of wealth and fortunes that remains in its place is nothing new \u2013 this has been a continuing theme for a good ten years.<\/p>\n

Also, concerning profitability, myths are stubborn.\u00a0 \u201cPrivate banking projects in Asia have a much lower profitability level in return on equity, compared to a Swiss bank, with a difference of about 15% to 20%.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 This calls into question the credibility of numerous projects that focus solely on private management.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Asian presence can make sense for offering an alternative booking center, or if it can rely on corporate banking, but other than these cases, the reality of the benefits is not so bright,\u201d <\/i>Michel Longhini further estimates, according to whom many Asian facilities cannot stand without also engaging in non-Asian business.<\/p>\n

At the same time, reminds the head of UBP, the risk level is very high in Asia.\u00a0 Worse still, it is very difficult to estimate for a bank, between the use of heavy leveraging by clients and the sophisticated products that they use.\u00a0 This explains the heavy losses sustained by private banking in Asia during the 2008 crisis.<\/p>\n

Another persistent myth surrounding private management in Asia is that the local regulator will be more tolerant.\u00a0 False.\u00a0 The screw has been tightened considerably in recent times, requiring that a sale not be made until there is a plan of fiscal suitability for the client\u2014that is to say, the relevance of a product for a client.\u00a0 The result is that \u201cin Hong Kong, it takes 40 to 45 minutes to sell a product that is explained in ten minutes in Europe.\u201d\u00a0 These \u201csuitability\u201d requirements increase the cost of training staff based in Asia.\u00a0 This is a point that can eliminate another misconception: Asia has talent in private banking.<\/p>\n

On the positive side, a significant part of the potential Asian clientele consists of members of the second or third generation, who are more sophisticated and more sensitized to the preservation of capital:\u00a0 One point on which Swiss institutions can capitalize, according to Michel Longhini.\u00a0 Any player in private management must have an Asian strategy, possibly starting in Switzerland, since 20% to 25% of the business of high net worth Asian individuals is booked in Europe, concludes the head of private banking at UBP.\u00a0 \u201cRather than approaching an Asian expansion with a defensive stance, we should include it in a global strategy, taking into account the fact that profitability is lower in Asia and the risks are greater.\u00a0 But for now, the\u201chomework\u201d has not been done!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information on this news,\u00a0please contact\u00a0<\/a>SAGE at +41 21 653 64 01\u00a0(Switzerland).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jean-Luc Freymond, CEO of SAGE Group SA, was a member of the panel discussion of a Breakfast Briefing in Geneva […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4481,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions\/4481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}