Lugano Private Bank Targets Middle East with New Office

Contributing Editor

18 April 2006

Banca Arner plans to open a new office in Dubai, according to reports in the Swiss press. The Lugano-based bank plans to target private clients in the region. The bank, which is was founded in 1984 and has around SFr2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) assets under management, currently operates in Italy, the Bahamas, Luxembourg and Madeira. Late last year Paolo Del Bue, a member of the executive board and major shareholder of Banca Arner, resigned. Mr Del Bue is currently under investigation in Italy for money laundering in connection with transactions by a company controlled by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. It is not known whether this is linked to his departure at Banca Arner. Mr Del Bue owns 34.8 per cent of the Lugano bank, which employs about 120 people. The bank also lost the services earlier this year of its chairman, Lucio Velo, who also stepped down. He was replaced by Ivo Sciorilli Borelli. Mr Velo was a director of a company which was closed by Swiss regulators last year for operating as a bank without authorisation.