Zurich-headquartered Vontobel will buy Finter, which is currently owned by Italmobiliare, the industrial and financial holding company of the Italian Pesenti family.

Swiss private bank Vontobel is to acquire Italmobiliare-owned Finter Bank Zurich to boost business relations with Italian clients.

The acquisition of Zurich and Ticino-based Finter, which offers private banking services to Swiss and Italian clients and employs around 65 staff, also aims to enhance Vontobel's presence in its Swiss home market.

Vontobel said the purchase price amounts to approximately 1.1 per cent of Finter’s SFr1.6 billion ($1.65 billion) in assets under management plus its book value. The bank expects the acquisition to contribute to its profit as early as next year.

“Finter is a perfect fit with Vontobel’s corporate culture and business model. By combining our competencies, we can offer clients domiciled in the Italian-speaking region a more comprehensive and more international range of services, while maintaining the same high quality of advice. Added to this, with our new presence in Ticino we will be making a further investment in the Swiss financial centre,” said the head of Vontobel Private Banking, Georg Schubiger.

As of the end of June, Switzerland-listed Vontobel held SFr181 billion of client assets.