It is a time of change for the Swiss banking industry. The giants of the business, such as UBS and Credit Suisse, have felt the fallout from the financial crisis as hard as any global financial institution.
The illustrious private banking business, for centuries virtually synonymous with Swiss reliability and discretion, is also feeling the pressure.
The continuing euro-zone crisis has taken the shine off its traditional financial hinterland, while regulatory crackdowns, especially in the field of tax planning, have forced the country's patrician private bankers to seek fresh opportunities outside traditional areas of business.
The capital-rich Arabian Gulf has increasingly become a focus, and Arnaud Leclercq, the Middle East head of one of the oldest Swiss institutions, Lombard Odier, is convinced the strategy is right.
"I first came here amid all the hubbub and hype of 2006, and must admit during 2008-09 we wondered if we should close the office down, business was so slim. But we took the decision to strengthen it instead."
In addition to Middle East business, Mr Leclercq, an amiable Burgundian Frenchman, runs eastern European and central Asian operations from Dubai. "My wife says I live on an airplane," he says, but he sees clear advantages in the Dubai location.
"It is a real hub, the Hong Kong of the subcontinent and the gateway to Africa, with infrastructure to match. Not just Emirates Airline, though that is a very important thing, but all this," he says, waving an arm across the view of downtown Dubai from the window of the chic restaurant atop Emirates Tower hotel where we are lunching.
Lombard Odier's business consists of advising wealthy individuals and family offices on investment, wealth planning and asset management.
Mr Leclercq admits the business flow is not coming as fast as expected, especially in Dubai.
"People here are still involved in some traditional things like real estate, but in Abu Dhabi progress has been better. We are a very conservative, safe organisation, and that impresses people in Abu Dhabi, who have a similar conservative culture."
One of the challenges of the private banking business, especially in a relatively new office like Dubai, lies in hiring the right staff. A traditional organisation such as Lombard Odier wants to hire people with solid track records in banking, and the "churn" caused by the financial crisis has meant many potential employees are on the market who have not clocked up the years.
"People have had more instability in their jobs, they've jumped ship every few years. You can't do that in private banking," says Mr Leclercq.
He is responsible for what the bank calls "new markets", a category that lumps together emerging, developing and frontier markets, and which represents the bank's diversification strategy away from traditional investment strategy in markets such as the United States and European equities and global fixed-interest markets. On the US, he is cautious on equities because of macro-economic factors such as high levels of government debt. "Short term it looks OK, but is it a real recovery? I'm not sure."
The euro zone is "even worse", Mr Leclercq believes. "France and the UK are flirting with recession, and Germany has also been impacted. But some equities have been hammered down too much and there could be some opportunities, especially in those that export outside the euro zone.
On the equities versus bonds debate, he believes we are at a pivotal point. Global fixed income has performed well, up 9 per cent last year in the Lombard Odier portfolio, but its positions have been reduced recently, especially in sovereign bonds. The focus is now on corporate and "new market" bonds.
Gold is also part of the long-term strategy. "We have a sophisticated strategy on gold, we're not just keeping it in the safe."
He appreciates the Dubai Government's recent initiative in the sukuk market, but as an asset class sukuk do not really figure in his portfolio. "It's not really our line of business and we'll never be as good as the local banks in sukuk," he says.
That fits in with the image of solid reliability that has been the hallmark of Swiss private banking for decades, but that image is under threat.
One of the oldest banks, Wegelin, has closed much of its business after a collision with the American authorities over tax evasion; others have come under pressure from global regulators to open up their notoriously secret structures.
"The old ways of doing banking have changed, and some of the changes are very good, like greater transparency and flexibility. But maybe it is going too far now. People deserve some privacy. It's not always that you're doing something wrong, it's a matter of personal freedom," he says.
Mr Leclercq sums up with all the suave finesse of a Swiss private banker: "I support the changes going on, especially in Swiss banking regulation, but not at the cost of basic levels of freedom of the individual."
fkane@thenational.ae
Super 30
Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /5
Fixtures
Tuesday - 5.15pm: Team Lebanon v Alger Corsaires; 8.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Pharaohs
Wednesday - 5.15pm: Pharaohs v Carthage Eagles; 8.30pm: Alger Corsaires v Abu Dhabi Storms
Thursday - 4.30pm: Team Lebanon v Pharaohs; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Carthage Eagles
Friday - 4.30pm: Pharaohs v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Team Lebanon
Saturday - 4.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Team Lebanon
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
Zodi%20%26%20Tehu%3A%20Princes%20Of%20The%20Desert
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U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Company%20Profile
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The biog
Favourite food: Tabbouleh, greek salad and sushi
Favourite TV show: That 70s Show
Favourite animal: Ferrets, they are smart, sensitive, playful and loving
Favourite holiday destination: Seychelles, my resolution for 2020 is to visit as many spiritual retreats and animal shelters across the world as I can
Name of first pet: Eddy, a Persian cat that showed up at our home
Favourite dog breed: I love them all - if I had to pick Yorkshire terrier for small dogs and St Bernard's for big
The Little Things
Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto
Four stars
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Ferrari
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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