As it continued to take full control of the non-US wealth business bought last year by Julius Baer, the Swiss bank announced that transfer of the UK business of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management arm started yesterday, adding to transfers made in other jurisdictions.

As it continued to take full control of the non-US wealth business of Bank of America Merrill Lynch that was bought last year, Julius Baer announced that transfer of the UK business started yesterday, adding to transfers made in other jurisdictions.

“This step represents another major milestone in the two-year integration process and will make Julius Baer one of the largest private banks in London. The UK is the last of the big markets to transfer,” the Zurich-listed bank said in a statement. The transfer process is moving quickly and is on schedule, it continued.

(This publication has met with senior management at the combined entity and will publish an interview in due course.)

The assets in the Merrill Lynch International Wealth Management arm amount to more than a quarter of IWM’s entire business that is being passed over. So far the businesses located in Switzerland, Uruguay, Chile, Luxembourg, Monaco, Hong Kong, Singapore, UK, Spain and Israel have started the transfer process and are moving ahead as planned. The next businesses to transfer, expected to occur in September and October, are in Bahrain, Lebanon and the UAE, Julius Baer said.

The Julius Baer/BoA Merrill Lynch transaction of last year has come at a time of a flurry of M&A deals in the wealth management business. For example, Falcon Private Bank, the Swiss-based firm, announced last week that it agreed to buy the Central and Eastern Europe private banking business of Hyposwiss Private Bank Zurich. Credit Suisse, for example, recently agreed to buy some of the non-domestic wealth business of Morgan Stanley. EFG International, another Swiss-headquartered firm, has been offloading non-core businesses as part of a move back into profitability.

In May, Julius Baer said assets under management rose 16 per cent between the end of last year and the end of April 2013, standing at SFr220 billion ($227.9 billion), boosted by the SFr24 billion in assets acquired from Merrill Lynch’s non-US wealth management arm. Total client assets stand at SFr309 billion.

Key market

“As the second biggest market by client base outside Switzerland, the UK is also be a key market for Julius Baer overall,” Gian Rossi, a member of the executive board and head for Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, said.

Adam Horowitz is joining from Merrill Lynch as head of the Julius Baer business in the UK.

The IWM financial advisors also moved to Julius Baer yesterday.

Client relationships and related assets under management of the UK business will transfer to the Julius Baer platforms in stages and in line with appropriate regulations, the statement said; the process is expected to be complete in the middle of 2014.

The combined business of Julius Baer and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management will move into new premises at 1 St Martin’s Le Grand in the heart of the City in September 2013.