HSBC Hires Veteran UBS Private Banker

The British bank's Swiss arm is hiring a long-standing managing director of UBS' private bank.

HSBC is naming Laura Geiger-Pancera as the head of its family office division in Switzerland, it said in an emailed statement on Thursday. Geiger-Pancera is a 20-year veteran of UBS, where she was most recently head of the Swiss giant's ultra-high net worth client strategy office.

She will continue to be based in Zurich, and report to Tom Cerboni, HSBC Switzerland's head of ultra-high net worth clients. The super-rich clientele – generally viewed as those with more than $50 million to bank – are «of fundamental importance to the private bank’s growth strategy, and has seen impressive growth in recent times, Cerboni said.

Run by Alex Classen, HSBC's Swiss bank eked out a profit last year, following years of losses and slimming itself and the markets it does business in. In February, the wider HSBC group said it will pour roughly $6 billion into expanding in Asia, and especially in private banking, such as onshore China.