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Annual
Report
2022

The drive you demand

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Message from the Chairman of
the Board of Directors and
the Chief Executive Officer

Daniel de Picciotto

Daniel de Picciotto
Chairman of the Board of Directors

Guy de Picciotto

Guy de Picciotto
Chief Executive Officer

"A year of major transitions for society, economies, the finance industry, and our own Bank."

Activity report
board of directors

BOARD OF
DIRECTORS

  • From left to right
  • David Blumer David Blumer joined UBP’s Board of Directors in March 2021. His career in financial services spans nearly three decades, in a variety of senior roles. He started in Zurich, at Credit Suisse, where he rose through the ranks to Head Trading and Sales and progressed to the role of CEO Asset Management. This was followed by a stint as CIO at Swiss Re, after which he moved to London as Head of EMEA with BlackRock before being appointed as their Head of Alternatives. David Blumer is an economics graduate of the University of Zurich.

    As at 31 December 2022, David Blumer was also Chairman of FE Fundinfo Ltd, Chairman of Behaviour Lab Ltd and a member of the board of MIO Partners Inc and FQX AG.
  • Patricia Bielmann Patricia Bielmann was nominated to UBP’s Board of Directors and Board’s Risk Committee and appointed Chair of the Audit Committee in March 2022. With a career spanning 25 years in financial service and treasury & trading audit and consulting, Patricia Bielmann has held several senior roles, the most recent being Head of Financial Service Accounting Advisory and Audit Partner for international listed groups at KPMG. She specialises in corporate governance and compliance as well as growth strategy, including M&A and business development. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Fribourg and is a certified public accountant both in Switzerland and in the US.
  • Olivier Vodoz Olivier Vodoz was first elected to UBP’s Board in 1998, a position he currently occupies as General Counsel. Between 1989 and 1997 he was in government in Geneva canton, holding the positions of President of the Department of Finance and President of the Department of Defence, prior to which he was a member of Geneva’s cantonal parliament. Olivier Vodoz has a degree in law from the University of Geneva and is a licensed legal practitioner in Geneva. Earlier in his career, he spent 20 years as a lawyer and partner at Geneva law firm Haissly & Vodoz. He has also worked as Ethics Commissioner at the Geneva police department, as well as being a member of the Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross from 1998 to 2013 and its Vice-Chairman from 2006 to 2013.
  • Daniel de Picciotto Daniel de Picciotto has been Chairman of UBP’s Board since 2016. He has been a member of the Board since 2010, before which he spent ten years on the Executive Committee. He joined the Bank in 1985 as Head of the Private Banking division’s Research Department, before becoming Head of Private Banking in 1990 and then Head of Asset Management in 1996.

    As at 31 December 2022, Daniel de Picciotto was also a member of CBI Holding SA’s board of directors.
  • Anne Rotman de Picciotto Anne Rotman de Picciotto has been a member of UBP’s Board since 2006. She is also a member of the Bank’s Audit Committee and Human Resources Committee. After spending several years in Goldman Sachs’ Asset Management division, she joined UBP’s London branch management team in 2002, where she was responsible for business development with a focus on high net worth individuals and institutional relationships. Anne Rotman de Picciotto holds a BA in Business Administration from HEC in Lausanne, as well as an MBA from the INSEAD business school.

    As at 31 December 2022, she was Chairwoman of the Board of CBI Holding SA, and sat on several other boards, including that of Dagnar Ltd.
  • Marcel Rohner Marcel Rohner has been a member of UBP’s Board since 2010 and its Vice-Chairman since 2016. He has a wealth of experience in the fields of banking, finance and risk management. He worked for almost 20 years at UBS AG, holding roles including Chairman and CEO of Global Wealth Management & Business Banking in 2005, Member of the Executive Committee from 2002 to 2009 and CEO of UBS Group from 2007 to 2009. Marcel Rohner has a PhD in economics from the University of Zurich.

    As at 31 December 2022, he was also the chairman of the boards of the following companies: Löwenfeld AG, Löwenfeld Beteiligungen AG, and Warteck Invest AG. He was a member of the boards of Armada Investment AG, Boxs AG, Helvetische Bank AG, and CBI Holding SA. Since 2021 he has been the Chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association.
  • Ligia Torres Ligia Torres joined UBP’s Board of Directors in September 2021. With core strengths in global AM and fixed income business development and sustainability, she has held various senior positions at BNP Paribas, most recently as its CEO of Asset Management Asia Pacific in Hong Kong. Before that she was based in London, as Head of Emerging Markets in the Asset Management division after having been CEO Wealth Management UK. She also has extensive experience as a director in both asset management and wealth management companies. Ligia Torres graduated in business administration from Instituto Autonomo de Mexico, and in international finance from HEC Paris, and has a master’s in futures and options from Paris Dauphine IX.

    As at 31 December 2022, Ligia Torres was Chair of RAM Active Investment SA and a member of the board of directors of Alfred Berg Kapitalförvaltning.
  • Nicolas Brunschwig Nicolas Brunschwig has been a member of UBP’s Board since 1998. He is a partner of the Brunschwig Holding group, which owns retailer Bongénie Grieder. Having joined that company in 1981, he is now in charge of central services and partnerships. Between 1989 and 2001, he was a member of the Geneva cantonal parliament, where his roles included chairing the Finance and Tax Committees. He was also chairman of the Fédération des Entreprises Romandes (employers' association for companies in French-speaking Switzerland) for seven years. Nicolas Brunschwig graduated with a diploma in Economics from the University of Geneva.

    As at 31 December 2022, he was a member of the boards of the following companies, among others: Brunschwig (Holding) SA, Brunschwig & Cie SA, Rolex SA, and Rolex Holding SA.

Executive Committee

Guy de Picciotto CEO
Guy de Picciotto has been UBP’s CEO and Chairman of the Group’s Executive Committee since 1998. He began his career as a management consultant in Switzerland and Belgium, before focusing on the banking sector with roles at UBS, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns and Sanyo Securities in Tokyo and New York. He joined the Bank in 1988, where he occupied various executive roles before being appointed Chairman of the Executive Committee. He holds a degree in economics and business management and has completed advanced Executive Management courses at IMD in Lausanne and INSEAD in Fontainebleau.

As at 31 December 2022, Guy de Picciotto was also a director of CBI Holding SA, and a member of the Committee of the Association of Swiss Asset and Wealth Management Banks.
Ian Cramb Member
Ian Cramb has been UBP’s Chief Operating Officer and a member of its Executive Committee since 2009. Before joining UBP, he was EMEA Consumer Chief Operating Officer at Citigroup, where he had previously held other high-level roles including those of Risk Manager, Head of HR, Chief of Staff and COO. He holds a modern languages degree from Durham University.
Nadège Lesueur-Pène Member
Nadège Lesueur-Pène is Head of Wealth Management Developing Markets. She has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2019. Before joining UBP in 2015 she was head of emerging markets within wealth management at BNP Paribas (Switzerland). She has also held high-level investment management roles at HSBC in Paris and Paribas in Moscow. Nadège Lesueur-Pène holds a DEA in Russian philology from Langues’O and a double Master’s in international management from ESCP–EAP (Paris), and studied political science at IEP (Paris).
Michael Blake Member
Michael Blake is Head of Wealth Management Asia, a post he holds alongside his role as CEO Asia. He became a member of the Executive Committee in 2019. Prior to joining the Bank in 2016, he was Chief Executive of Coutts International, and before that Head of Asia Pacific Management Office at UBS. He has lived and worked in Asia, Switzerland and London over the past fifteen years and is active in various international affairs forums. Michael Blake read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.
Michaël Lok Member
Michaël Lok has been Co-CEO of UBP’s Asset Management division since 2015 and a member of its Executive Committee since 2016. Before joining UBP, he worked at Indosuez Wealth Management (Crédit Agricole group) as Global Head of Asset Management, after holding roles as Head of Investment and Head of Risk & Quantitative Portfolio Management. Before that, he was a portfolio and fund manager at Banque Martin Maurel and HSBC France. Michaël Lok holds two Master’s degrees, one in Finance (DESS) and one in Banking and Finance (DEA), from the University of Aix-en-Provence.
Nicolas Faller Member
Nicolas Faller has been Co-CEO of UBP’s Asset Management division and a member of its Executive Committee since 2015. He joined UBP in 2010 as Head of Sales Europe and was appointed Head of Global Sales in 2011, then Head of Institutional Clients in 2013. Before joining UBP, he was Global Head of Distribution at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, after holding several high-level roles at Fortis Investments. Nicolas Faller is a graduate of the University of Mulhouse and France’s Ecole Supérieure de Gestion.
Philip Adler Member
Philip Adler has been UBP’s Head of Treasury & Trading since 2016 and a member of its Executive Committee since 2017. Before joining UBP, he had been a member of the Executive Committee and Head of Capital Markets at Crédit Agricole Indosuez (Switzerland) SA since 2008. He previously worked at UBS SA, Commerzbank AG and the Crédit Agricole group. Philip Adler has more than 30 years of experience in banking.
Raoul Jacot-Descombes Member
Raoul Jacot-Descombes has been UBP’s Group Head of Risks & Compliance and a member of its Executive Committee since he joined the Bank on 1 January 2015. He started his career as a lawyer, before moving to the Swiss Anti-Money-Laundering Authority and then becoming General Counsel & Executive Managing Director at ACM, which was then acquired by Swissquote Bank. He also held the role of Director in KPMG’s Forensic division, in charge of Western Switzerland. Raoul Jacot-Descombes holds a Master’s degree in law from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, and is a licensed legal practitioner.
Claudio Rollini Company secretary
Claudio Rollini has been UBP’s Company Secretary since 2013. He joined the Bank after holding various high-level roles at companies including British American Tobacco in Lausanne and London, and at the Geneva-based Fédération des Entreprises Romandes (employers’ association for companies in French-speaking Switzerland). He has more than 25 years of professional experience in corporate governance and communication, devising strategies for negotiation, institutional relations and regulatory affairs. Claudio Rollini initially trained as a lawyer, and holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Geneva.

Key figures

140.4 billion

Assets under management (in CHF Billions)

38,761

TOTAL ASSETS
(IN CHF MILLIONS)

1,213

TOTAL OPERATING
INCOME
(IN CHF MILLIONS)

210

NET PROFIT
(IN CHF MILLIONS)

1,960

STAFF HEADCOUNT
(FTE)

6.6%

SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY/
TOTAL ASSETS RATIO

Aa2

MOODY’S LONG-TERM
DEPOSIT RATING

ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT

(IN CHF BILLIONS)

2022
in a few words

2022 will be remembered as a year of unprecedented geopolitical and economic turbulence. War in Ukraine and continuing Covid-related restrictions disrupted supply chains, sparked an energy crisis and fuelled inflation. This, and the resulting policy response of interest rate hikes, generated significant volatility in the equity and fixed-income markets, and stoked fears of recession.

These upheavals once again underscored UBP's ability to adapt to radical changes and to hold course in an environment with little or no visibility.

The Bank’s top priority during this tumultuous year was to remain as close as possible to our clients, both private and institutional, in order to provide them with continuous advice and relevant solutions in the face of challenging market conditions. Client satisfaction remains, as ever, our central tenet.

This new investment paradigm required a reset of portfolio allocations. While many clients took refuge in the safety of interest-bearing deposits, our decorrelated investment offering, including structured products, private markets and hedge funds, proved a welcome alternative for clients as they exited equity and fixed income.

Confident in our business strategy, we continued to invest in our core competences and markets. This included the further strengthening of our sustainability offering and research, the completion of the acquisition of Danske Bank International (DBI) in Luxembourg, the selective recruitment of experienced relationship managers and the start of our Chinese onshore wealth management capabilities with a first office in Hainan Province.

Simultaneously we reviewed our operating model for gains in efficiency, reinforcing our processes and enhancing the client experience as well as closing our Nassau branch and selling our US client business (UBP Investment Advisors).

SUSTAINABILITY

Strategic priority

Sustainability is an increasingly prominent consideration in our investment decisions and actions as a company.

Recognised Expertise

Our responsible investment expertise allows us to play an active role in the transition to a sustainable future.

Environmental Responsibility

Concrete targets and measures help us to continually lower our own environmental footprint.

Strong Governance

Our dedicated governance structure is the foundation of our sustainability drive.

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Highlights

UBP's main news

2023 investment outlook

The agility that was required to navigate markets in 2022 will remain an asset in 2023 as the global economy treads a fine line between developed economies entering recession and emerging ones seeking to consolidate recoveries. Hedge funds should continue to provide shelter for equity investors in particular, as high interest rates, elevated volatility, and the broadest single-stock dispersion since 2007 provide multiple return drivers in the new year.

Overall, these paradigm shifts will require investors to walk a tightrope between new opportunities and risks associated with the transition of the global economy. As a result, in 2023 we expect to continue to rely on active and dynamic risk management to help us maintain our commitment to both preserving and growing our clients’ assets.



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