Bank of China lays groundwork for Swiss expansion

FWR Staff

1 December 2008

State-owned bank gets OK to provide banking services in the Alpine republic. Bank of China , a Chinese state-owned commercial bank, says it has received permission from Swiss regulators to establish private-banking and investment-management operations in Switzerland.

Heritage

BOC entered the Swiss wealth-management market through Heritage Fund Management, a Geneva-based fund manager in which it acquired a 30% stake in July 2008. With the OK from national authorities to operate as an investment firm and bank in Switzerland its own right, it intends to up its stake in HFM to 70% and do business under the BOC brand.

HFM's co-founder Jacques Mechelany will be CEO of the private-banking side of the business; Julian Fulop, formerly CEO of Vevey, Switzerland-based Coninco Advisory and Coninco Wealth Management, will take the lead on the fund component.

In September 2008, BOC took a 20% stake in the French part of Geneva-based LCF Rothschild Group. It billed the move as "the first strategic investment by a leading Chinese Bank in a euro zone bank."

The Chinese government owns about 70% of Beijing-based BOC -- which shouldn't be confused with China's central bank the People's Bank of China.

Zurich-based UBS has a tiny stake in BOC. -FWR

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