There will be continued consolidation in Switzerland’s banking industry, particularly between those banks with non-domestic clients, a top-level UBS executive has said.

There will be continued consolidation in Switzerland’s banking industry, particularly between those banks with non-domestic clients, the head of UBS’s Swiss wealth unit was reported as saying.

The comments of Christian Wiesendanger, reported by  l’Agefi, a Swiss newspaper, come at a time when the Alpine state’s banking industry is seen as being squeezed by international pressure against Swiss bank secrecy laws. According to a recent report by consultants Booz & Co, up to SFr47 billion could leave Swiss banks in the wake of account disclosure deals signed between Switzerland and the UK and Germany.

The crackdown on Switzerland’s centuries-old tradition of bank secrecy is seen by industry figures as compressing the country’s bank margins, because managing secret bank accounts in the past was a low-maintenance job, while providing more “value-added” service such as investment advice requires more staff and cost. (To see a recent article on the issue, click here).

The report did not say if Wiesendanger had any particular banks in mind when he talked of the consolidation issue.

Recently, Safra, a Brazil-based banking group with operations in Switzerland, bought the controlling stake in Sarasin & Co, the Swiss bank, from its existing owner, the Netherlands-headquartered Rabobank group. The deal confounded those who expected Zurich-listed Julius Baer to make the acquisition.

Among other comments made to the Swiss newspaper, Wiesendanger said that UBS is seeing more growth in private banking in Geneva and the Romandie region of Switzerland than in Zurich.