The Swiss private banking industry is undergoing a process of deep-rooted transformation. Digitisation, rising IT costs and new regulations are calling traditional business models into question and weighing on margins. The client demands are also changing fundamentally. Some banks are giving up in the face of these challenges, while others – such as Maerki Baumann – perceive opportunities and are seizing them.

Despite the turbulent 2020, Maerki Baumann looks back on a year of very pleasing business development. Thanks to its “defensive growth strategy”, Maerki Baumann was well positioned on the investment side at all times. The success of this strategy is also reflected in this year’s rating of private banks performed by the business magazine “Bilanz”, in which our family-owned company was named “Best Swiss Private Bank 2021”.

As astonishing as it may seem, art market players of all kinds – dealers, galleries, auction houses, art fairs, artists and collectors – were anything but tech-savvy until just recently. Exclusively digital and purely web-based concepts such as online auctions, digital sales platforms and augmented reality art shows were still meeting with a very muted response even in early 2020.