2022 Annual Report – BBVA in Switzerland
Communications
We ended 2022 with the conviction of having experienced an extraordinarily complex year, not only because of the challenges involved in returning to normality by combining on-site work and the home office format, but also because of the different events that we have encountered during the year, which have undoubtedly made it a year of great challenges, in part due to the major corrections suffered by the markets, where we all know we have faced the biggest falls in debt prices since 1870, but also due to the added complexity resulting from the war in the Ukraine and all the geopolitical factors that this sad conflict has caused in terms of rising prices of productive inputs, with the escalation of energy costs being one of the main macro factors that have had an impact on the economies as a whole.
The new levels of inflation and the rise in interest rates with the aim of cooling or neutralizing the effect on prices, have surely been the two macroeconomic variables that have most occupied the financial industry this past year when it was about interpreting and assessing the situation for the benefit of our clients.
Despite this context, we can say that BBVA Switzerland has once again proven to have an extraordinarily resilient business model, where we have managed to continue growing in inflows, reaching CHF 1’154 million, a record figure for the Unit, improving margins by 9 bp compared to last year, and reaching 92 bp of ROCAL. These achievements led us to reach CHF 7.515 million net income, which implies a 7% growth over the previous year.
2022 has allowed us to return to normality in terms of placing value in our physical approaches in order to explore opportunities with our clients and thus better understand where their needs are. From BBVA Switzerland, we have carried out a total of 147 trips to the different geographies where our clients are located. We understand it is fundamental to foster proximity to our clients to better visualize where the opportunity to create value lies, always combining our digital tools and the interaction through our relationship managers, they being the basis of the success of our institution. Additionally, we continue with our strategy to offer the best investment ideas that pivot on long-term strategic visions where the interaction of the investment, advisory and relationship manager teams is absolutely crucial for the benefit of a differential value proposition.
BBVA Switzerland also continues with its strategy of combining traditional assets with the possibility of having digital assets under an execution only model. This dual service is a novelty in a traditional bank and we consider it to be of great value, as it allows our clients to maintain a single asset allocation, combining both types of assets, as well as to tremendously reduce the counterparty risk where we offer an in-house custody service with different levels of security, something we undoubtedly consider critical at present times.
In line with BBVA Group’s goal of creating opportunities for our clients, our aim is to improve client experience by making onboarding as easy as possible, and we have therefore incorporated biometrics for our New Gen clients. Our ambition is to gradually continue our strategy of demystifying the Swiss investment industry by democratizing it with a focus on sustainability.
We strongly believe in the open architecture and in the enormous possibilities that this new business line offers to younger client profiles, with decision-making capacity in terms of investment, who want to maintain a multi-currency account and combine these investments with digital assets.
Our priority during 2022 has been to continue preserving our clients’ assets, being fully aware of the corrections that markets have suffered, but also visualizing where the opportunities for the future lie, and as such we have transmitted it to be able to capitalize on them.
We would like to thank our teams for the intense work they have carried out during the past 12 months, where their motivation, willingness and professionalism has been absolutely extraordinary, without which none of what we describe in this report would have been possible. We also want to show our gratitude to our clients; we always emphasize it and we will not stop doing it: without their trust, our work would not be possible. Our clients are the most important asset we have in the Bank.
We are proud of belonging to the BBVA Group, with the healthy concern of continuing on the path of growth, creating opportunities for our customers from our headquarters in Zurich.
