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Switzerland's Vontobel Pulls Plug On Internet Banking Project

Ulrika Lomas, Tax-news.com, Brussels

28 February 2001

Vontobel Holding AG, the Swiss private banking and asset management group, said this week in a statement that it was "discontinuing" its Internet banking project, "y-o-u Bank", which has been in the pipeline since March 2000.

Vontobel said that it had decided to pull the plug on its e-banking initiative due to costs and timing. A press release from the firm said: 'The cost projections and the time frame have been shown to be unrealisable.' Vontobel said the project had cost SFr151m in the profit and loss account of the group for the financial year 2000, but scrapping it would not affect its operating results this year.

Vontobel was the first Swiss private bank to announce that it was setting up an independent e-banking business. Its larger counterpart Julius Baer announced a similar venture last autumn. The road Vontobel will now follow will be the same one taken by Switzerland's UBS and Credit Suisse, the country's two largest banks, which have both incorporated Internet banking into their general business activities.

Vontobel focuses on private banking, investment banking, institutional asset management and investment funds for wealthy individuals. Further core activities include investment counselling, securities transactions as well as trading in foreign currencies and derivative instruments.

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