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Paradeplatz in Zurich, the Swiss financial heartland © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Switzerland is still number one in terms of wealth management internationally, despite the growth in new assets slowing in 2020, according to consulting firm Deloitte.

The company found that overall, “the leading centres of international wealth management did surprisingly well during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Switzerland managed some $2.6 trillion (CHF2.4 trillion) in international assets in 2020, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States, Deloitte reported on Thursday.External link

The firm’s International Wealth Management Centre Ranking (IWMCR) compares wealth management centres around the globe in terms of asset size, competitiveness and performance.

Gap to UK, US

However, the US, UK and Luxembourg have rebounded much more strongly after the first Covid-19 shock (with 14.8%, 12.7% and 20.7% growth respectively), Deloitte said.

By contrast, Switzerland only saw growth of 7.3% in 2020, below the weighted average growth rate of 10.6% for the nine places measured. The country was also unable to attract significant amounts of net new assets, the study found.

“International wealth management had a very successful year, but Switzerland couldn’t keep up with the overall market development and the gap between Switzerland and the UK and US is shrinking,” Patrik Spiller, Wealth Management Industry Lead at Deloitte Switzerland and Europe, said in a statement.

But he added that “Swiss wealth managers are the clear worldwide leaders when it comes to competitiveness”.

Competitiveness

Here, Switzerland maintained its top position, with Singapore and Hong Kong close behind. But Deloitte highlighted two weaknesses: the smaller Swiss domestic market and the lower relative profitability of its wealth management providers.

“Now is the time for Swiss wealth managers to quickly introduce new models of digitally enabled interaction with clients and enhanced product offerings enabling clients to easily tap into private markets, cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets,” Spiller said.

Deloitte also recommended that wealth managers put an emphasis on environmental, social and governance investments, as well as on privacy and digitalisation.

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