Swiss Bank Opens in London, Targets Eastern Europe

Christopher Owen

14 January 2008

Swiss bank Valartis has opened a representative office in London to target expansion of its wealth management business in Eastern Europe. Valartis Bank currently has offices in Zurich and Geneva. The new office will be headed by Kurt Steiner, who joined the company this month as managing director. He joins from Credit Suisse in London, where he was Global Head Russia (UK). Prior to that he worked for UBS in Zurich and London. Mr Steiner will be based in London and will report directly to Michel Arni, head of Wealth Management and a member of the executive board of Valartis Group. Gustav Stenbolt, chief executive of Valartis Bank, said: “Eastern Europe, including Russia and the other CIS states of the former Soviet Union is a market with huge potential. Valartis Bank’s aim is to expand its share of this market. We now have a strong team with which we will be able to pursue our growth strategy in our core markets." The Swiss-based Valartis Group, whose activities are spread over asset management, wealth management, investment banking and real estate structured finance, changed its name from OZ Holding in January last year. It has around SFr4.5 billion ($4.1 billion) in assets under management. The banking unit is based in the Pfäffikon district of Zurich. Banking activities were expanded by the purchase of Valaxis Asset Management at the beginning of last year and the establishment of a branch of Valartis Bank in Geneva.