Julius Bär faces more cost-cutting

Swiss private bank Julius Bär says it will shed some jobs across the organisation in what is a third cost-cutting round this year.

But the bank has declined to confirm a report in Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper that 150 posts were at stake, mainly in private banking and investment solutions.

“We’re going to cut material costs but some jobs will also have to go,” bank spokesman Jan Vonder Muehll told Reuters, adding the savings would be made in all operations and not only in Switzerland. Jobs would be shed through natural fluctuation, he said.

Julius Bär had already implemented some cost-cutting measures in February and June. In April it agreed to pay €50 million (SFr61 million) to German authorities to settle a tax evasion dispute.

However, Switzerland’s largest listed pure private bank remains on the lookout for acquisitions and has been linked with a number of potential domestic and foreign targets since buying a minority stake in Brazil’s GPS in May.

The Zurich-based bank, which reported a fall in first-half profit in July, employs around 3,500 staff.