A Swiss private bank is said to be joining hands with a local Indonesian lender to exploit opportunities in the Southeast Asian country.

Lombard Odier is working on collaborating over private banking products with Indonesian lender PT Bank Mandiri Tbk, with the launch date slated for 16 April.

The co-operation between the Indonesian and Swiss firms takes the form of a strategic alliance, Hery Gunardi, director of small business and networks at Bank Mandiri, said in a statement cited by kontan.co.id, an Indonesian publication. Asked by this publication about the matter, a Lombard Odier spokesperson said: “Our discussions to form a strategic partnership in the area of onshore wealth management in Indonesia have progressed positively and we will provide details when we make a formal announcement on 16 April.”

The collaboration would mean that clients of the Indonesian bank who often hold significant amounts of cash, are given opportunities to widen the available range of asset classes.

A year ago, Indonesia completed a tax amnesty that was said to have brought billions of dollars of wealth back into the country and out of Singapore. As a result, banks that previously ran Indonesian money from the Asian city-state are looking at building onshore presences and services in Indonesia (see here for an interview with executive search firm Huddleston Jones about the issue). In May last year, OCBC, parent of Bank of Singapore, launched onshore private banking in Indonesia through its 85 per cent-owned subsidiary, OCBC NISP. 

A number of banks have made Indonesia-focused appointments in recent months. As reported a few days ago, Citi Private Bank has appointed Simon Kastono as global market manager for Indonesia. He took up the role at the start of this week. VP Bank (Singapore), part of Liechtenstein-headquartered VP Bank, in February appointed Samuel Witjaksono as market head of Indonesia. The hire is part of the firm's strategy to expand in Asia, it said at the time.