Deutsche Bank has said that it will be serving its wealthy Swiss private clients under the its own brand and will fully merge the Zurich-based private bank Rud, Blass & Cie Bankgeschaft, a 100% subsidiary of Deutsche Bank Schweiz, into the parent company, from June 2009 onwards.
For the Swiss-based clients of Rud, Blass & Cie Bankgeschaft, a new private wealth management Switzerland unit will be created in Deutsche Bank (PWM Switzerland). The name “Rud, Blass” will be retained as a brand name in advisory services as well as in the “Rud Blass Immobilienfonds-Index” and the new real estate fund “Rud Blass Immobilien Schweiz Dachfonds”. Clients’ account numbers and contacts will remain the same.
PWM Switzerland will retain the traditional focus of Rud, Blass & Cie Bank-geschaft on the Swiss domestic business, while expanding on the private bank’s strengths. These include its individualised asset management in Swiss equities and CHF-denominated debentures as well as the specialised expertise in indirect Swiss real estate investments, said Deutsche Bank. The mortgage business will be added towards the middle of 2009.
Alan Zlatar, chief investment officer of Rud, Blass & Cie Bankgeschaft, will join Deutsche Bank’s global investment committee and in this role will contribute to formulating the authoritative investment strategy recommendation for all of Deutsche Bank’s private clients.
Hans-Jurgen Koch, CEO of Deutsche Bank Schweiz, said: Deutsche Bank has been serving wealthy Swiss private clients for more than 28 years. Today, we are one of the largest foreign banks in Switzerland and intend to continue to grow. For this reason, we are now offering our modern asset management services which are consistently structured internationally, to clients of Rud, Blass & Cie Bankgeschaft. They will also profit from Deutsche Bank’s global presence in all of the important capital markets.