As Switzerland's two largest commercial banks announced huge rises in quarterly profits over the past week, Swiss bankers were welcoming the return of large amounts of foreign cash to their vaults.
UBS, the country's largest banking group, raked in a record 35 billion Swiss francs (US$23.3 billion dollars) in new funds under its management, as it doubled its first-quarter net profit this year to SF2.42 billion.
The wealth and asset management business was "growing fast," UBS commented last Tuesday.
A day later, its slightly smaller rival Credit Suisse announced a near seven-fold increase in its first quarter net profit to SF1.86 billion, also partly fuelled by regained deposits.
Private banking attracted about two-thirds of the total amount of new assets recorded by the whole group in the three-month period, SF10.8 billion. Private banking customers must deposit at least SF500,000 before they can enjoy that kind of service. The threshold rises to about SF1 million with some of the smaller private banks in Geneva or Basel.
Some of the rise might be seasonal, as the beginning of the year generally sees a slight surge in deposits, according to bankers.
But this year's experience is a far cry from just three years ago, when clients withdrew cash to cope with plunging stock markets.
UBS executives explained the new influx by pointing to old or existing customers who were entrusting more assets to the banks for them to invest.
Those deposits came mainly from Europe and Asia, they added. UBS tapped about SF4 billion more from the EU.
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