Brave new world as cryptos disrupt the Swiss bank model

Back in the day, the vaults of a Swiss bank would have been filled with gold bars, precious stones and art but no longer. Stefan Schwitter, Head of Investment Solutions at SEBA Bank spoke with ETF Express this week, explaining that his three-year old Swiss bank set out to bridge the traditional finance world servicing the high-net-worth investor and family office with digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

In terms of the custody offering, "It’s kind of abstract," Schwitter says. "There’s no vault with gold bars in the basement or piles of bank notes but what you do have in the basement is a storage capability with a technical set up and as abstract as it is we are not holding the gold bars but the private keys of the coins on the blockchain…the private key is safe. We are making sure because that is the weak spot in the chain." 

Other news this week comes from the London Stock Exchange’s Hetal Patel who details the landmark year the exchange has had in our partner feature, reminding us that on 3 February 2021, trading in ETPs accounted for 23 per cent of the total London Stock Exchange order book turnover. Patel tells us that the last six years, in particular, have seen 100 per cent growth in ETP trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Turning to the US, Broadridge tells us that over one-third of all households held ETFs, up 7 per cent from 2017, with a rise in ownership across all wealth tiers. Andrew Guillette, Vice President of Distribution Insights at Broadridge, says: "I was not surprised by the growth of ETF holdings among investors overall as passive investments have for years been eroding share from the larger mutual funds marketplace." 

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Beverly Chandler, managing editor, ETF Express


Companies in this issue 

AJ Bell
BlackRock
BNY Mellon Investment Management
Broadridge
Defiance
Global X ETFs
HSBC
Harbor Capitol Advisors
Invesco
The London Stock Exchange
PGIM
Roundhill 
SEBA Bank
Solactive
VanEck
WisdomTree