Julius Baer has named a new chief executive for its Middle East operations, the Swiss private bank said today.

Julius Baer has appointed Juerg Berger as chief executive for its Middle East business. Berger has worked at the Swiss private bank for over 14 years and has been on the board of directors of the bank in London.

He takes over from Peter Schaer, the bank said in a statement today. Berger will be based in Dubai.

Julius Baer says it was the first international private bank to be granted a licence to operate in the Dubai International Financial Centre in 2004 and will celebrate the ten-year anniversary of its local presence in the UAE this year. The Group has also offices in Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Istanbul, and through its acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business, Julius Baer has further grown its presence in the region.

In July, Julius Baer said total client assets stood at SFr372 billion ($414 billion) at the end of June, a 7 per cent gain since the end of last year, while assets under management, at SFr274 billion, rose 8 per cent. The latest AuM figure included SFr54 billion of money from Bank of America’s non-US international wealth management (IWM) business that has been acquired and booked onto the Julius Baer platform.

Separately, the bank has been quoted as saying it is interested in looking at part of the Coutts International business put up for possible sale by Royal Bank of Scotland.