Net income for 2011 declined by SFr10.8 million ($11.6 million) to SFr6.4 million (previous year SFr17.2 million) at Liechtenstein-headquartered VP Bank.

The private banking group, which offers asset management services for wealthy individuals and financial intermediaries, says income from the interest-differential business was impacted mainly by valuation changes in the interest-rate swaps used to hedge interest rates. The changes came as a result of the sharp decline in Swiss capital market interest rates during the second half of the year.

This had no influence on the purely operational results, Swiss-listed VP said in a statement. A decline in income from trading activities was attributed to lower profits from foreign exchange hedges.

The inflow of net new money, by contrast, was, at SFr1.0 billion, ten times last year’s SFr0.1 billion.

At 31 December 2011, client assets under management at VP Bank Group stood at SFr27.5 billion (last year SFr28.2 billion), while total client assets, including assets held in custody, were SFr39.0 billion (last year SFr40.8 billion).