Consolidation will continue, anticipates Christian Hintermann, banking expert at KPMG. The cumulative net profit rose to 4 billion francs in 2024.
Apart from UBS and Credit Suisse and cantonal and regional banks, there are 83 Swiss banks which are mainly active in wealth management. It is to this universe, dominated by eight major private banks – Edmond de Rothschild, EFG, J. Safra Sarasin, Julius Bär, Lombard Odier, Pictet, UBP and Vontobel – that the study is interested «Clarity on Swiss Private Banks» Published each year by KPMG and the University of Saint-Gall (HSG). Based on the indications provided by 71 private banks active in Switzerland, the audit and consulting firm observes that if the number of establishments specializing in wealth management has decreased by almost half in Switzerland, their cases have improved last year.
The increase in commissions and trading operations compensated for the drop in interest income
Despite a decline in interest income last year, Swiss private banks saw their net profits increase by almost a billion francs, to exceed 4 billion francs in 2024 (3.1 billion in 2023). How to explain this improvement in results in 2024? Christian Hintermann, study manager and banking expert at KPMG, estimates that two effects have counterbalanced in 2024. While net interest products fell by around 10% to 4.6 billion francs in 2024 (compared to 5.1 billion in 2023) for the entire private banks sector-a decrease that has reached 16% for small banks, compensated by the increase in commissions and trading operations. In addition, assets under management of Swiss private banks increased by 14% compared to the previous year, reaching a total of more than 3.4 billions (3400 billion) of francs, carried by the positive development of the financial markets last year.
In historical comparison, the cumulative benefits of Swiss private banks, which jumped 30% over a year to reach 4 billion in 2024, are not so exceptional, puts Christian Hintermann into perspective. In 2021, they had already exceeded 4 billion francs, he recalls. Overall, the results recorded in 2024 are described as “stable at a high level” by the expert. In 2023, the evolution of interest rates had been very favorable for Swiss private banks. In 2024, interest income was still good but down-a trend that was offset by the increase in income from commissions and trading operations, he summarizes.
Costs/income ratios have large disparities between banks
The relationship between costs and income from private banks was 75.5% in 2024, compared to 74.3% in 2023. Isn’t that too high? Could Swiss private banks improve their profitability in the future? On this subject, Christian Hintermann would like to recall that in this activity segment, the cost-to-private ratio of private banks has often varied between 80 and 83% in the past. It was only from 2023 that this ratio decreased sharply, taking advantage of the additional income obtained thanks to higher interest rates. According to the expert, the current cost-refer ratio is historically low, even if it tends to go up. He also believes that the cost structure of private banks can not directly be compared with that of regional banks or focused on detail customers. The Swiss private banks, for example, face the much higher complexity of activities with cross -border customers (“cross boarder”) which also generates higher costs. Finally, he observes that the differences between establishments are considerable, ranging from a cost-up-up ratio less than 40% up to 120% in certain cases.
Recruit customer advisor: a course strewn with pitfalls
According to the KPMG study, medium -sized private banks were a significant success last year in their efforts to attract new customer deposits. The commitment of new customer advisers from third -party banks remains a difficult exercise which is far from always successful. “The hiring of advisers and advisers to the UBS/CS customers had only a limited effect on the contributions of fresh money,” observes Christian Hintermann.
Is it still worth recruiting advisers, or even entire teams of managers, from other competing establishments? For Christian Hintermann, we come back to the dilemma here to know how a private bank can grow. “Growth via acquisitions or m & A -type transactions has long been stopped. It is only now that mergers and acquisitions have resumed, ”he observes.
In a context where growth possibilities through acquisitions remain limited, it is understandable that private banks seek to grow by recruiting customer advisers. However, there are not many private banks that reveal the results obtained via such a strategy. An example quoted by Christian Hintermann is EFG which saw its nets net of fresh money grow by 6.5% last year – a growth due largely thanks to the recruitment of customer advisers or relationship managers (RM).
In general, the expert finds that banks have become much more demanding when it comes to hiring customer advisers. “A specific business plan must be established. And if the change is not successful, it often happens that advisers must leave. This can make some advisers hesitate to change employer, ”he observes.
The resumption of Saxo Bank by Safra Sarasin has been the largest transaction in ten years
The acquisition announced last year of Saxo Bank by Safra Sarasin was thus the largest transaction involving private banking in the past ten years, notes the study. The other transactions in 2024 involved the following establishments: Acquisitions of Société Générale Private Banking (Switzerland) by UBP, Thaler Bank by CA Indosuez, Cité Gestion by EFG, One Swiss Bank by Gonet & Cie, to which was added the takeover of the portfolio of customers of Ihag Privatbank by Vontobelk.
The decrease in the number of private banks continues
In 2010, the KPMG study found still 156 private banks in Switzerland (excluding UBS and Credit Suisse). At the end of the first half of 2025, they were only 83 (against 85 in 2022, 2023 and 2024). They employ more than 40,000 people in Switzerland. Among these 83 establishments, the study counts eight large banks, the “Big 8”, with assets under management of more than 100 billion francs, 25 medium -sized private banks (between 10 and 100 billion) and 50 small private banks (less than 10 billion).
Should we expect a pursuit of the consolidation movement? Christian Hintermann observes, on the one hand, that the drop in the number of establishments is mainly explained by the disappearance of many small banks, from 118 establishments at the start of the last decade to 50 institutes currently. “Among the small banks, those that remain today are those that have managed to adapt,” he says. Some of them have refocused their business model in only a few countries. Others benefited from higher interest rates in 2023.
Medium -sized private banks are challenged
The expert estimates, on the other hand, that challenges are important for medium -sized private banks. “Medium -sized banks often have a presence in several countries abroad. However, they are still often very far from “Big 8”. They thus have the ambition to act as large banks but without having the necessary size, ”he observes. In addition, the pressure exerted by the increased requirements of the regulations will also be felt in small and medium -sized banks. In all cases, the consolidation process should continue, anticipate the authors of the study. By the end of the year, the number of private banks in Switzerland should go below 80 institutes.
How much will he be left at the end of this decade? Without formulating a specific figure, Christian Hintermann expects that between 15 and 20 Swiss private banks disappear by the end of 2030.
