UniCredit mulls boosting Swiss private banking

By Lisa Jucca

GENEVA (Reuters) - Italy's leading bank, UniCredit, is looking to boost its private banking presence in Switzerland to better serve the large pool of off-shore clients it acquired with HVB, a senior UniCredit banker told Reuters.

UniCredit (CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) became Europe's sixth-largest bank by market value thanks to its acquisition last year of Germany's number two lender, HVB Group (HVMG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), in the region's biggest cross-border bank deal ever.

The takeover made UniCredit the largest bank in the high-growth markets of central and eastern Europe and a top player in Germany, Italy and Austria -- three traditional markets for off-shore business in Switzerland.

"We can't serve all the clients just out of Lugano. We have to be more present in Switzerland," Dario Prunotto, general manager for UniCredit Private Banking, told a Reuters Wealth Management Summit on Thursday.

"This can be done -- not necessarily by acquiring another bank, but maybe by growing in the business structure."

Switzerland's heavily fragmented private banking sector is on the radar screen of several big European players.

One of Sal Oppenheim's partners told Reuters on Wednesday it was eyeing acquisition opportunities in the Alpine country, while the head of BNP Paribas's (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Swiss division said he was also on the lookout for a private banking buy.

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