General Bank has inaugurated a Lugano, in Switzerland, his private bank Bg Suisse. The headquarters are in the central Piazza della Riforma, next to the municipality of the Ticino town and, above all, adjacent to the historic branches of UBS and Credit Suisse. A position that confirms the will of the group led by the CEO Gian Maria Mossa to launch the challenge to the Swiss giants of asset management, a sector which in the last year has been put to the test by the crisis at the beginning of 2023 of Credit Suisse, later bought by Ubs.
After all, Banca Generali, after having established its Swiss branch BG Suisse Private Bank, had last October obtained the license from Finma, the Swiss market supervisory body: which means having the OK to operate as a real bank in Switzerland too. Not only from the product point of view, but also in the expansion across the territory. AND' the first time since 2009 that an Italian individual obtains a Swiss banking license.
Bg Suisse Private Bank, the affiliate specialized in asset planning and protection services that Banca Generali, has a dual objective in Switzerland: to look at the local clientele and also offer new opportunities to those in Italy who are looking for alternatives in investments.
Move: “Initial objective of raising between 5-7 billion in 5 years”
“We wanted to start with a bank that had no roots in other stories, but brought all the transparency and strength of our path and our values”, underlined the CEO, Gian Maria Mossa, keen to underline how the opening in Lugano represents "our first step abroad as Banca Generali in the distribution of our approach based on financial consultancy". The initial goal is to achieve a raised between 5-7 billion of euros within 5 years of the new Swiss reality, which could however represent a sort of launching pad.
Further expansion ahead
“After this first step we intend to proceed with one subsequent expansion in the other Swiss cantons, however, we are looking with great interest elsewhere, even outside of Europe where the Lion brand is already known, but it takes time", added Mossa, alluding to countries with private banking models similar to the ours and indicating a time horizon of three years.
For now we start from Ticino, where we aim to enlarge the bankers platform, which currently counts one dozen units, and further small acquisitions are not ruled out,”by aggregating small trusts as we did for Bg Valeur”, specifies Mossa. “We believe that our model of innovation and quality in the service available to customers with the figure of a nearby banker can respond to the needs of families for planning and valorisation of savings also here in Ticino and in Switzerland”, explained the CEO. d., thus underlining one of the main purposes of the operation: to export its model to new customers.
Diversification opportunities for Italians
The new reality will be guided by Renato Santi, which plays the role of CEO of BG Suisse since 2022, the year of launch of the creation project, and which will however also have the further task of offering new opportunities to Italian customers who have long chosen to maintain part of their diversified positions on the Swiss market. Based on the new project and the innovative multi-booking model approved by the regulator, the latter will in fact have the opportunity to sign an advisory contract to be followed by their banker directly from Italy also on the savings held at BG Suisse.
