Liechtensteinische Landesbank announced it had ended the banking activities of a Switzerland business, as previously announced last March, continuing a programme of restructuring.

Liechtensteinische Landesbank, the Vaduz-headquartered private private bank that has sold and spun off a number of businesses to restructure its business and bolster profitability, announced it had ended the banking activities of a Switzerland business, as previously announced last March.

The business operations of Liechtensteinische Landesbank (Switzerland) ceased at the end of 2013, LLB Group said in a statement today. Meanwhile, it said the sale of the Lugano branch to PKB Privatebank – as originally agreed in September last year - has been completed.

The Geneva and Erlenbach locations will now be run as representative offices of LLB AG, Vaduz, the statement said

In October last year, LLB also announced its equity stake in the Jura Trust Business, a move made as part of its "Focus2015" strategy to concentrate on certain markets and clients and reduce costs.
"The closure of LLB (Switzerland) Ltd. and the sale of the Lugano branch mark important milestones in the implementation of our Focus2015 strategy. The successful completion of these complex strategic initiatives underscores the consistency of the LLB Group's focus on and orientation towards clearly defined markets and client segments,” Roland Matt, group chief executive, said.

In March last year, LLB Group announced that it was closing its Swiss banking subsidiary LLB (Switzerland) “in the context of the new strategy and economic considerations”.

As part of the changes, a successor company, LLB Verwaltung (Schweiz), has been founded. It is responsible for the final settlement, subject to supervision by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA. The premises at the Stampfenbachstrasse in Zurich were sold.

Lugano sale

The sale of the Lugano branch to PKB Privatbank was also completed at the end of 2013. With this, a significant part of LLB (Switzerland)'s business volume of about SFr2 billion, as well as all 26 employees, will transfer to PKB.

In total, the closure of LLB (Switzerland) together with the sale of the Lugano branch lead to a net new money outflow of approximately SFr2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2013, as expected, the statement said.

The Geneva and Erlenbach locations will now be run as representative offices of LLB Ltd., Vaduz, focusing on clients from the Central and Eastern European markets.