Clients of the former Notenstein La Roche Private Bank are now Vontobel clients after the technical and legal migration of the private bank successfully completed on October 1.
The technical migration of all client data to Vontobel’s systems was completed on schedule over the weekend, and now will be able to access the bank’s ‘services and global investment expertise’ with immediate effect while keeping access to their relationship managers from Notenstein La Roche.
‘Discussions with these clients have shown that Vontobel is welcome and that our global expertise in active wealth management has the potential to add value for them,’ said Georg Schubiger (pictured), head of wealth management at Vontobel, in a statement. ‘We aim to keep growing at the same rate with this enlarged client base and our position as a leading wealth manager in Switzerland.’
Under the terms of the agreement, Vontobel took on around 220 employees from Notenstein La Roche Private Bank, roughly 100 of them relationship managers.
The acquisition of Notenstein La Roche is aimed at complementing Vontobel’s organic growth in wealth management for high-net-worth clients. Vontobel has strengthened its domestic footprint with an additional seven Notenstein La Roche branches. Vontobel can now serve private banking clients from 13 Swiss locations.
Notenstein Private Bank entered the Swiss structured products market in March 2013, with Raiffeisen Switzerland Cooperative as guarantor and EFG Financial Products Ltd (now Leonteq) as services provider, following the purchase of an equity stake of 20.25% in EFG Financial Products Holding for CHF70.2m (€56.2m).
Raiffeisen went through a reorganisation in 2015 that saw Notenstein's structured products trading and distribution (sellside) integrated in Raiffeisen's Central Bank. Notenstein La Roche Private Bank, Raiffeisen Switzerland and Leonteq signed a ten-year agreement in early 2016 for the issuance of structured investment products through which Leonteq acts as the core provider of technology and services for the origination and distribution of structured investment products.
The sale of the Notenstein La Roche business to Vontobel has no impact on the 10-year cooperation agreement between Leonteq and Raiffeisen because the private bank, according to a Leonteq spokesperson.
“Leonteq continues to provide the requested services to Raiffeisen Switzerland since the agreement has not applied to Notenstein La Roche Private Bank since July 2017 when the private bank ceased issuing products under its own name, and all its existing products products were migrated to Raiffeisen,” said the spokesperson.
Notenstein La Roche client relationship managers have had access to Vontobel’s Deritrade beginning of this year and could suggest their clients products on this platform, according to a Vontobel spokesperson. "The access was negotiated before the acquisition," said the official. "Since Notenstein La Roche clients have become Vontobel clients as of today (and Notenstein La Roche has ceased to exist) they will be approached by their Vontobel relationship manager with regards to Deritrade."
Raiffeisen's equity stake in Leonteq stands at 29.02%. There are over 2,800 structured products with Notenstein as distributor on Switzerland's database of which 675 are live products.
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