This publication is holding the inaugural Switzerland and Liechtenstein Awards for outstanding performance, both at the institutional and individual level, in wealth management. (To view the full details of these awards, see here.) A crucial part of the process of course is having a panel of judges with the experience and knowledge to assess the entries.

Here is Professor Teodoro Cocca, who is chair for wealth and asset management at the University of Linz and adjunct professor at the Swiss Finance Institute.

So what are his views on what is happening in the Alpine jurisdictions’ banking sectors?

“The Swiss/Liechtenstein wealth management sector has to transform its business model to fully comply with new international regulatory standards. The management issues linked to this transformation process are huge as the asset base is expected to decrease while implementation costs will rise,” he said.

“Furthermore, reputational issues and de-motivation of personnel needs to be addressed carefully. For many players the worst has yet to come and management needs to be ready for this rough ride,” he continued.

“It would be great to see new business models emerge that are able to attract exciting and future client generations. In order to do so innovation must become a core competence for the wealth management sector. Today the sector is very backward oriented and spends most if its time to solve past issues,” Prof Cocca added.