Nadège Lesueur-Pène

84% of women report feeling unprepared to manage inherited wealth, with many finding the experience challenging when it arrives.

Nadège Lesueur-Pène, Head of Wealth Management Developing Markets & Europe at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), explains what sets Swiss private banks – and UBP in particular – apart in an increasingly complex and competitive world.

Geneva-based bank Union Bancaire Privee has launched its first office in Riyadh, a significant step in its long-term expansion and highlighting the rising evolution of wealth management needs in Saudi Arabia.

For the younger generation, private banking is no longer necessarily as attractive a business sector as it was for their predecessors. Nonetheless, these institutions’ recruitment needs remain high, and attracting young talent is becoming an increasingly important issue for them. So how can private banks attract and retain the next generation? 

The world as we have known it for the past few decades now looks to have been fundamentally turned on its axis, as indeed have traditional portfolio-management models. In light of this new environment, in which crises – each of which is not necessarily related to the next – appear thick and fast, private banks have to have the right asset management tools to protect their clients’ assets.

They are increasing affluence through careers, entrepreneurship, investments and savy wealth management.

The importance of a financial centre or bank cannot be assessed based on assets under management alone. First and foremost, what makes Switzerland the world leader in cross-border private banking is the excellent service and management know-how it offers, rather than the volume of assets it manages.

Will the first half of 2022 be remembered as the turning point? It certainly looks that way, judging by the shift in the prevailing mood since last winter.

The wealth management sector in Switzerland, seen by some as traditionalist or even downright old-fashioned, has once again shown how its agility and innovativeness still make it the leader.