Bank Vontobel is now providing securities administration services for the Raiffeisen bank group. The Zurich-based bank now administers 32...

Bank Vontobel is now providing securities administration services for the Raiffeisen bank group. The Zurich-based bank now administers 320,000 client portfolios for Raiffeisen’s clients and its central bank, Raiffeisen Switzerland. Vontobel has executed securities transactions for the Raiffeisen clients for two years and the Raiffeisen group has had an exclusive strategic relationship with Vontobel since 2003 when it bought a 12.5 per cent stake. Raiffeisen consists of 411 cooperative banks with 1,150 branches and 2.9 million clients. In August the private banking business unit of Vontobel reported first-half pre-tax profit growth of 13 per cent to SFr40 million ($32 million), as compared with the same period in 2005. Net assets under management rose by SFr 300 million in the period to SFr62.3 billion. It is controlled by the Vontobel family and the Vontobel foundation and has around 1,000 employees.