Swiss Private Bank Opens First Overseas Office In Hong Kong

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

13 March 2007

Leading Swiss private bank, Banque Piguet & Cie S.A., has announced the opening of its first overseas office in Hong Kong. The ceremony was officiated by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Frederick Ma.

Also present were over 200 guests including Banque Piguet’s board members from Switzerland, Consul-General of Switzerland in Hong Kong, Hans Jakob Roth, and a select range of financial and business professionals from Asia and Europe.

The opening of the Hong Kong office marks the Swiss bank’s determination to expand its presence overseas and extend the best tradition of Swiss private banking into Hong Kong and the wider Asian region.

Taking advantage of the liberalization of the banking sector in Mainland China, including the introduction of Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) licenses, as well as the demand for wealth management services, Banque Piguet aims to offer its asset management and private banking business to high net worth individuals across the Greater China region.

Speaking at the ceremony, Banque Piguet’s President of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer, Charles de Boissezon, announced that: “Our first overseas office in Hong Kong marks the bank’s firm belief in and commitment to the territory. We feel this is an ideal place from which to capture the growing opportunities in the region. The choice of Hong Kong is a tribute to its dynamism and its well-earned position as Asia’s World City.”

Chief Representative – Greater China Region, Michael Chan, added, “The boom in Asia is continuing into its sixth year and according to the International Monetary Fund pan-Asia growth is expected to reach seven percent this year. Being in Hong Kong puts us squarely in Asia’s regional financial hub, as well as at the gateway to China. From here we’re ideally placed to target the high and ultra high net worth individuals and institutional investors in the region.”

Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong, Mike Rowse, observed that: “With the opening of its first overseas branch in Hong Kong, Banque Piguet has joined almost three quarters of the world’s leading banks in having a presence here. An investment of this kind is another endorsement of Hong Kong’s position as an international financial centre. Given the rising demand for quality financial services across Greater China, I am sure Banque Piguet will find Hong Kong an unrivalled location from which to build its Asia business.”

Banque Piguet specialises in private banking, institutional asset management and services to independent portfolio managers. With an extensive historical database, Banque Piguet’s investment strategy is based on the risk analysis of global macro-economic trends relative to the valuations of financial markets, thereby identifying future value and risk.

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