The bank has made a number of shifts: focusing on certain markets, and outsourcing activities to cut its cost base.

Banque Cramer & Cie, which recently appointed a prominent Swiss industry figure as chief executive, has reported a 3.8 per cent year-on-year rise in assets under management to SFr3 billion ($3.14 billion).

Operating income rose 4.1 per cent, reaching SFr41.3 million for the 2021 financial year, the Swiss bank said in a statement yesterday. 

The group cut operating costs by 4 per cent last year by outsourcing operational functions in IT and the back office. The cost/income ratio fell 86.6 per cent in 2020 to 79.9 per cent last year.

The bank logged an operating result of SFr7.1 million last year, surging by 145 per cent from a year earlier. Taking into account an extraordinary charge related to a provision for the sale of a minority stake, net profit fell slightly from SFr5.3 million in 2020 to SFr5.0 million in 2021.

"Our operating model not only leads to improved productivity, but above all allows us to devote our resources to higher value-added activities. The flexibility of our structure favours our development strategy, which is based on organic growth and a selective acquisition policy in Switzerland,” Massimo Esposito, chairman, said.  

In late March, the bank appointed Eric Pfister as CEO. With more than three decades of industry experience to his name, he worked for more than 20 years at Credit Suisse in roles including head of UK International. Pfister was head of Middle East and Asia at Clariden Leu. Most recently, he was global head of private banking at Falcon Private Bank, before moving to ODDO BHF (Switzerland) in 2018 where he was the CEO.

In 2020 the Geneva-based group focused on its Swiss platform, concentrating its expansion efforts on its priority markets: Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as Latin America. Besides Geneva, the bank has offices in Zurich, Lugano and Lausanne and an affiliated company in Nassau.