“There are substantial consolidations taking place in the private banking and wealth management business,” Stender said. While he wants to continue participating in this process, Helvetia Wealth has already been able to profit from it.

Recently Helvetia Wealth, which was founded five years ago by Stender and the firm’s chairman Ottmar Ruoff, acquired a strategic stake in Dahl & Partner Vermögensverwaltung, the former media group Axel Springer family office in Hamburg.

In December last year, Helvetia Wealth also bought Glasgow-based City Gate Money Managers along with a controlling stake in London-based TAM Asset Management.

At the moment, the firm is in negotiations about acquiring a “successful and well-known” UK-based independent financial advisor; however, more information is not available, as Helvetia Wealth is still awaiting approval for the deal from the Financial Services Authority, the UK financial regulator.

As the prestige of the Swiss banking secrecy shrinks and Switzerland is complying more and more with tax standards set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (more here), the firm is increasingly focusing on becoming “a premium onshore wealth manager” offering services locally.

“Helvetia Wealth is ahead of the game,” Stender said with regards to the increasing attempts of countries to repatriate assets from offshore jurisdictions through tax amnesties. Other measures to repatriate assets have included the legally questionable move by some European countries to buy disks with data on alleged tax evaders holding accounts in Liechtenstein and Switzerland (more here).

To counter the possible substantial loss of assets Swiss wealth managers and private banks may witness, Helvetia Wealth will acquire IFAs and other wealth managers “in the relevant markets, such as Germany and the UK,” Stender said.

With regards to the number of private banks up for sale, Stender said: “This is very interesting, we are certainly thinking about it. However, it is not clear at what stage we would make such a move.” This move would involve acquiring a banking licence, something the wealth manager does not hold at the moment.

“For now, we are focusing on building up our assets under management and our infrastructure,” Stender added.

The firm is looking at private equity or debt funding in order to finance further non-organic growth.

The Zurich-based company has SFr1.2 billion (around $1.13 billion) in assets under management; however, the planned acquisition of the UK-based IFA would increase this to SFr1.7 billion. When founded five years ago, the firm started with only SFr20 million AUM.

Stender has many years of experience in private banking, having been with Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank in London and Frankfurt before founding Helvetia Wealth.