CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA - 2018 Annual Report

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CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA

Message from the General Management of CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA

Consistently improving our information systems and working methods year after year is one of our teams’ core objectives. In this respect, making Azqore an independent business line and the acquisition of an equity stake by a partner, the internationally- recognised Capgemini Group, are both major milestones. This should set the stage for further integration between the entities of the Indosuez Wealth Management group, giving our service, operating efficiency and long-term growth a quality stamp. Above and beyond the ongoing changes in this specific area, CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA continued to implement a number of different projects focused on process optimisation and the roll-out of new tools throughout 2018. Such efforts fall within the framework of a broad effort aimed at constantly improving our range of products and services to more efficiently meet the expectations of our clients and satisfy the requirements imposed by the regulatory authorities. In order to improve our competitive standing in the area of wealth management versus the main players in Switzerland and worldwide, our sales organisation was also strengthened by putting new Investment Advisers in place dedicated to every geographic region. More broadly, the desire to adapt our activity to constantly evolving markets and the increasing mobility of our clients resulted in a special effort designed to strengthen our advice and assistance to our clients. This focus is reflected in the completion of the process of integrating CIC's Asian teams at our locations in Singapore and Hong Kong subsequent to the acquisition made in 2017.

After several years of major changes in our strategy and organisation, 2018 can be regarded as a year of continuity. Over the last few months, CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA has enabled the implementation of key projects in all its business lines. The success of these projects deserves to be emphasised mostly because their completion requires consistency and genuine medium-term commitment. Moreover, the determination to continue and intensify the changes underway has allowed CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA to deal, under the best conditions possible, with the turbulence that impacted the financial sector over the past few months. As to the wealth management sector overall, 2018 stood out due to the enormous complexity of market conditions. Both private and institutional investors were confronted with an across-the-board depreciation for virtually all the different asset classes in every financial marketplace. In such a challenging environment, our teams remained faithful to our goals: stability, prudence and excellence which are the foundations of CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA’s strategy. The negative turn in the financial climate was a major challenge for our organisation. We worked collectively to overcome the challenge. To do this, CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA employees demonstrated responsiveness, mobilising their different areas of expertise whenever required in order to constantly offer our clients innovative investment solutions. At the same time, CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA was able to pursue its organisational transformation, thereby providing its sales teams with all the needed resources to meet the expectations of our clients and to ensure the excellence of the services offered to them.