Switzerland’s EFG bank poaches Credit Suisse teams

ZURICH (Reuters) – EFG has taken over the Credit Suisse teams in Switzerland’s exclusive ski resorts of St. Moritz and Gstaad, opening its new offices there at the start of the year, the private bank said on Thursday.

Since Jan. 1, Stephan Uebersax, formerly the regional head for Credit Suisse, leads the team of nine in St. Moritz while in Gstaad, another Credit Suisse veteran, Manuel Blanco, heads up 11 employees.

The new offices will enable EFG to stay close to wealthy Swiss and international clients who have a primary or secondary residence in either of the locations, the bank said in a statement.

The move comes after Credit Suisse’s collapse and subsequent takeover by UBS in March last year. EFG has already announced that also took over Credit Suisse’s team in Israel.

EFG’s head of Switzerland and Italy said he did not exclude further forays into mountain resorts or other Swiss cities, and that options will be looked into as part of strategic discussions happening in the next months.

“We need to have a combination of the target client – the global wealthy client we want to serve – and the good people, as we found in St. Moritz and Gstaad,” Franco Polloni told Reuters.

In November, EFG, which has seen its share price rise more than 25% in the last year, reported that it had 144 billion Swiss francs in assets under management.