It would seem that Hyposwiss, the Zurich-headquartered private bank, is taking a sideswipe at its Swiss rival UBS in a new advertising campaign launched this week.

The text of advertisement in question runs: “It will never be about you and us. It will always be about your money.” Observers will of course remember a high profile advertising campaign launched by UBS in 2004 which centred on the tagline “You & Us”, making Hyposwiss’s cutting reference to its rival’s changed fortunes all too clear.

UBS has been working to rebuild its image after severe losses related to the credit crisis and a bruising legal tussle with the US authorities over allegations it helped US clients evade taxes. The Swiss banking giant’s reputation has undoubtedly suffered in the past few years, but UBS is working hard to rebuild its image and recent news coming out of the bank has been far more positive. In the second quarter the bank reported that client outflows from its wealth management arm decelerated further to SFr5.2 billion (around $4.96 billion), compared with SFr8.0 billion in the previous three months. UBS also announced a new global sponsorship deal with Formula 1 racing earlier this week.

While Hyposwiss naturally does not mention UBS in its press release on its new branding and communications campaign, the bank is at pains to emphasise its conservative approach to wealth management and its core values of responsibility for its own actions, client commitment and competence. The campaign centres on the tagline “Expect the expected”, continuing a noticeable trend of private banks pushing their conservatism and even embracing “boring” as a desirable label.

“Sustainability is the key for us… In the end, nobody likes surprises when it comes to money. However, this means that we sometimes need to advise our clients against seeking higher and higher returns and to manage both risk and return expectations,” said Declan McAdams, general manager of Hyposwiss Private Bank in Geneva.