Swiss bank Vontobel has recorded an increase in asset growth during the last three months at its private bank arm while gross margin remained close to the previous year’s level.

Swiss bank Vontobel has recorded an increase in asset growth during the last three months at its private bank arm while gross margin remained close to the previous year’s level.

Assets under management totalled SFr7.6 billion ($8 billion) at the end of September. It added that the business with US private clients is on track, with its asset base now exceeding SFr1.6 billion in the direct client business and SFr1.2 billion in the business with third-party SEC-licensed asset managers.

The firm said its private bank had moved ahead with its expansion activities in Switzerland, Germany and Asia with a string of new hires.

It has also achieved a promising start in Asia, which uses the Vontobel booking platform in Switzerland, it said. The bank partners with ANZ bank through which each firm offers services to each other. (To view a recent interview with the CEO about strategy and its outlook, click here.)

Overall the bank won SFr2 billion in new client money during the third quarter and it expects a slight increase in full-year earnings over last year.

This marks a return to growth for the Zurich-based firm, which scrapped its revenue target in July after failing to attract any net new funds from clients in the first half of 2014, blaming investors' concerns over emerging markets.

"Vontobel expects to deliver a solid result for the full year 2014 and currently anticipates that it will slightly exceed the result for the previous year," the bank said in a statement.