Asian boom lures leading Swiss private bank (hktdc.com)

Leading Swiss private bank, Banque Piguet & Cie S.A. opened its first overseas office in Hong Kong, marking its determination to expand its presence overseas and extend the best tradition of Swiss private banking into Hong Kong and the wider Asia region.

Taking advantage of the liberalization of the banking sector in the Chinese mainland 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.

Banque Piguet's President of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer, Charles de Boissezon, said: "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, said: "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."

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. Source: InvestHK