Julius Baer has seen better days. The Zurich-headquartered wealth firm has struggled to boost profitability, been rocked by rising costs, suffered tepid net new money from clients and multiple scandals in recent years.
The aftershock from the latest crisis at the Swiss private bank — a 606m Swiss francs ($685m) bet on Austrian billionaire Rene Benko’s failed property group Signa — is still being felt.