Italian Parent Of BSI Says To Focus More On Insurance Business, Makes Senior Appointments

Tom Burroughes

14 January 2013

Italian insurer Generali, parent of the Swiss private banking group BSI, announced that Carsten Schildknecht will join as chief operating officer from 1 April this year, as the firm said it will focus more on insurance as it set out strategy in a presentation to investors.

In a statement ahead of an investors’ day in London, Generali said that Schildknecht most recently had been COO of asset and wealth management and chairman of the supervisory board of Sal Oppenheim, the German wealth management business that had been acquired by Deutsche Bank. For eight years, he was also global COO of the wealth management arm of Deutsche Bank.

Generali also said that Nikhil Srinivasan had been named the new group chief investment officer. Srinivasan previously worked in Allianz Group from 2003, holding several investment functions. He has been group CIO of Allianz Investment Management and a member of Allianz’s international executive committee.

Meanwhile, in a statement ahead of the presentation, Generali said its strategic targets included attaining operating return on equity of 13 per cent over the cycle, translating into an operating result exceeding €5 billion (around $6.7 billion); a Solvency 1 ratio above 160 per cent by 2015, with an “AA” approach to manage capital and leverage; a cash flow above €2 billion by 2015 and €600 million of cost reduction by end-2015.

In November last year, media reports said that BSI Group (Banca della Svizzera Italiana), Generali’s Swiss private bank, was on the block for sale. BSI declined to comment when questioned by this publication last week on the matter when fresh rumours circulated about such reports.