Large management changes have been unveiled by Liechtenstein-based private bank VP Bank Group as it reported consolidated net income of SFr16.1 million for the first six months of 2010, a decline of 40 per cent on the SFr26.9 million for  the first half of 2009.

Client assets under management fell SFr1.1 billion from SFr29.5 billion at 31 December 2009 to SFr28.4 billion at 30 June 2010, including a cumulative SFr0.3 billion net outflow of funds (H1 2009: net outflow of SFr1.0 billion).

Chief financial officer Fredy Vogt pointed to falling costs as evidence of the action the bank is taking: “Our measures aimed at reducing costs both in the personnel and G&A area are gaining durable traction,” he said. 

As part of the changes, VP has taken an axe to its top level management structure. From 1 September 2010, the group executive management will be reduced to three: chief executive officer Roger Hartmann will be chairman and, as head of markets, manage the client-advising market segments directly. Vogt will head the corporate centre.

The service units will be combined in a new business segment, Wealth Management Solutions & Services, to be managed by Juerg Sturzenegger, who until now has been head of executive management at VP Bank (Schweiz), the Swiss business. The two previous business units, Private Banking Clients and Intermediaries, will be shifted into the new, market-segmented management structure.

The heads of the three market segments will be members of auxiliary group executive management and report directly to Hartmann. Georg Wohlwend will bear responsibility in Vaduz for the Banking Liechtenstein & Regional Market segment; the search is underway for a new market head of the Private Banking Asia-Pacific segment in Singapore; and the Private Banking International segment will be managed out of Vaduz by Hartmann.

In conjunction with this reorganization, Ernst Näf and Gerhard Häring will leave VP at the end of September 2010.

VP will also go for growth by looking further afield; Hartmann explains: “We intend to expand our base of client assets under management. To that end, the advisory teams in Singapore and Zurich for Asia as well as Central and Eastern Europe will be enlarged. In addition, focused marketing initiatives will determine how and in which markets we will be approaching prospective clients.”

Also a part of that is the broadening of competencies in international tax law, wealth structuring and the business with private label funds.