Julius Baer Plans To Cut Up To 880 Jobs After BoA Merrill Deal

Tom Burroughes

25 September 2012

Julius Baer plans to cut up to 880 staff at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch wealth management unit that the Swiss bank bought a few weeks ago, according to media reports.

The Zurich-listed bank, which is integrating the non-US wealth management business purchased in August, faces a number of functional overlaps in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Switzerland, reports said.

The source or sources for the 880 figure was unclear.

When WealthBriefing reported on the deal, which could boost Julius Baer’s assets under management by up to 40 per cent to SFr251 billion (around $268 billion), the Swiss bank told this publication that some job cuts were likely, but did not specify an exact figure. The precise number of any reductions depends on how many assets come over, as well as other factors, the firm has said.

Whenever such a merger and acquisition deal takes place, there is speculation on how many jobs will be affected as a result of functional overlaps. Also, the wealth management industry, which on average has a global cost/income ratio of under 80 per cent, is looking to curb costs and wring more efficiencies from business models.

Julius Baer reiterated to this publication that it had always made clear that there would be some reductions but had not spelled out a precise number.

Boris Collardi, Julius Baer’s chief executive, recently said he was confident of being able to keep costs under control in the wake of the BoA Merrill Lynch deal.

Late last week, shareholders of Julius Baer approved the creation of authorised share capital to partly finance the Bank of America Merrill Lynch transaction. The capital increase, handled via a rights issue in the amount of up to SFr500 million, is expected to take place in October, depending on market conditions.