Bipielle Bank (Suisse), the Lugano-based private bank, reported a 4 per cent rise in net profit in 2005 to SFr8.2 million ($6.6 million). As...

Bipielle Bank (Suisse), the Lugano-based private bank, reported a 4 per cent rise in net profit in 2005 to SFr8.2 million ($6.6 million). Assets under management fell 2.1 per cent in the year to SFr1.1 billion, despite a strong performance in global equity markets. Bipielle Bank has been involved in a scandal related to its parent bank Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI), which was known as Banca Popolare di Lodi until recently. BPI’s former chief executive, Gianpiero Fiorani, and others were arrested by the Italian authorities in December. They allegedly embezzled more than €100 million ($125.7 million), using Bipielle Bank and accounts at other banks. In May, The Swiss Federal Banking Commission ordered four directors of Bipielle Bank to resign. The directors have been named as Franco Ambrosetti, Aleardo Cattaneo and Massimo Pedrazzini and Michele Grippa. The Swiss authorities continue to investigate Bipielle Bank and have frozen a number of accounts at the bank, according to reports in the local press.