Goldman Sachs Targets Private Banking Customers With New Geneva Branch

Ulrika Lomas, Tax-news.com, Brussels

09 March 2001

Goldman Sachs' Swiss subsidiary has announced plans to open a Geneva branch in May 2001 for private banking customers mainly from Southern Europe and Latin America. It is the firm's first expansion within Switzerland after launching its business in Zurich 27 years ago.

Geneva is said to be attracting increased deposits through Swiss and foreign banks at a rate of around 30 per cent annually. And Goldman Sachs has made such a huge profit in Switzerland that it has decided to branch out in the country. Last year the leading global investment banking and securities firm raised its assets under management by 40 per cent.

The Goldman Sachs Bank manages money for customers with investments of at least SFr10m (US$6m), which is around 10 times more than Julius Baer Holding AG and UBS AG require of their private-banking clients.

The bank's move into Geneva is not before time as it is widely believed to be the most important Swiss city for asset management. Banks and financial institutions based in the city currently manage assets worth an estimated SFr2 trillion, which is about half of all money deposited in Swiss banks.

David Blood, co-head of Goldman's asset management business, told Bloomberg this week that Goldman Sachs plans to double its assets under management to $1 trillion within five years in an attempt to garner 2 per cent of the world's US$44 trillion private wealth market.

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