The key financial results
- The net new money inflow of the Group amounted to CHF 0.5 billion at the end of June 2024, corresponding to annualised growth of 2.2 per cent. The net new money inflow without taking into account further forced outflows due to adjustments to the client portfolio was CHF 0.8 billion; this corresponds to 3.6 per cent on an annualised level.
- Client assets under management increased by 8.8 per cent to CHF 50.4 billion.
- The loan volume increased by 5.2 per cent from CHF 5.5 billion at the end of 2023 to CHF 5.8 billion.
- As a result of the lower net interest income due to the shifting of client assets from current account balances to higher-interest-bearing time deposits and securities, total operating income fell by 13.6 per cent to CHF 162.6 million. The commission and services business and net trading income remained at the same level as in the same period of the previous year.
- Operating expenses fell by 6.0 per cent to CHF 148.8 million. This was due to lower personnel costs and lower depreciation and amortisation.
- The semi-annual profit was CHF 11.5 million, which corresponds to a reduction of 54.8 per cent compared to the previous year. The cost/income ratio stood at 91.5 per cent.
- VP Bank has a strong capitalisation and high liquidity. The tier 1 ratio was 26.1 per cent, and the liquidity coverage ratio was 309.5 per cent.
- The priority in the coming months will be to implement a comprehensive package of measures to increase efficiency and accelerate growth. This is to achieve a sustainable improvement in the cost/income ratio. In the second half of the year, restructuring costs and related costs in a broader sense totalling approximately CHF 10 to 12 million will be incurred in this context.
Strengthening and growth in core markets
As a full-service bank in Liechtenstein and an internationally active bank for intermediaries and private clients, VP Bank has a diversified business model in markets with good growth prospects. In order to achieve the growth target, the bank’s strengths must be utilised in an even more targeted manner and the corresponding growth initiatives must be consistently focused on the core markets. In Liechtenstein, VP Bank already has a strong private client and commercial business with stable growth. The aim is to strengthen market leadership with respect to the fiduciary business. In Europe, VP Bank is represented in Zurich and Luxembourg, important international financial centres, and is recognised by discerning international clients for its comprehensive wealth management services and asset protection. This offering is to be expanded by tightening up the services. In Asia, VP Bank decided to close its Hong Kong office. The Asia region remains important for the Group. VP Bank will continue to grow and strengthen the Intermediaries and Private Banking presence in Asia and explore new opportunities from the Singapore location. In the British Virgin Islands, the aim is to defend market leadership in the prime real estate financing niche. The bank intends to utilise synergies with Asset Servicing in the future and continue to successfully position itself as a one-stop shop for funds with a comprehensive range of services.
Package of measures to increase efficiency
VP Bank has set itself a minimum efficiency target of CHF 20 million, which is to be achieved by the end of 2026. To this end, processes will be consistently geared towards clients, redundancies in the organisation will be eliminated and the existing product and pricing landscape will be simplified. Services that cannot be successfully positioned on the market will be discontinued. This includes, for example, the bank’s own range of private market investments. There will also be a reduction in the size of the workforce associated with these changes. The restrictive hiring policy in place since the start of this year has meant that much of this downsizing can be undertaken via staff turnover, but some terminations will nevertheless occur. Any employees affected will be given support with their career transition.
