Julius Baer is expanding in its home market, Switzerland. The Zurich-based private bank's Bern branch has poached an award-winning team of bankers from a local competitor, a source told finews.ch.
Julius Baer plowed 125,000 Swiss francs into a sponsorship deal for Bern's traditional bear park last year, when CEO Boris Collardi made an appearance to underscore the Zurich bank's commitment to the Swiss capital.
Baer has just reinforced that move: the bank has poached an entire team of private bankers from local competitor Valiant, finews.ch has learned.
Award-Winning Team
Eleven bankers have reportedly left Valiant recently, according to media reports. As finews.ch has learned, they have all been hired by Baer's branch in Bern, which is run by regional head Patrick Heritier.
Julius Baer wasn't immediately available for comment.
Sources familiar with the situation report that the moves are particularly painful for Valiant: those jumping ship to Baer include several specialists who helped Valiant win the top rank in a widely-read ranking of private bankers.
Local Reinforcement
By contrast, the move could propel growth for Julius Baer in the area, which is known as persistently difficult to break into for «outsiders», as the Zurich bank is considered in Bern.
The move underscores aggressive domestic growth targets, as outlined by Swiss head Barend Fruithof in an interview with finews.ch in February.
