The bank is among a number pushing at Germany's HNW market.

Julius Baer has opened an office in Berlin as it expands its German business. It is a sign now of firms increasingly competing for business in Europe’s largest economy. 

The new office is managed by Christian Liste, who was formerly the head of Bethmann Bank in Berlin (Bethmann is owned by Netherlands-based ABN AMRO). 

With Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank, working to recover its fortunes in recent months – with rumours that it might even merge with fellow Frankfurt-listed Commerzbank – the country’s wealth management market is seen as a tempting field. Besides the likes of Berenberg, Bethmann and some other players, Germany’s private banking sector is highly fractured among dozens of players (see an article here).

Among the firms pushing into the country are Paris-listed BNP Paribas, which has recently announced a Germany chief executive to lead its business in that country, and Societe Generale, which in early July bought a commodities business from Commerzbank. BNP Paribas explained its wealth strategy to this publication in the summer.