Swiss wealth manager cautions crypto ‘has no place in private banking’ for now

The recent cryptocurrency market rout has warranted financial organizations around the world to take a more cautious approach to the budding asset class, with one wealth manager warning against investing in it until the situation stabilizes.

Indeed, the Swiss wealth management firm Pictet Group has acknowledged crypto’s growing role, but also stressed that cryptocurrency had no place in private banking, at least for the time being, Bloomberg’s Krystal Chia and Suvashree Ghosh reported on August 4.

Crypto here to stay but long way from private banking

Addressing a panel at the Bloomberg Asia Wealth Summit in Singapore, Tee Fong Seng, the CEO of the firm’s Asia wealth management branch, explained that:

“Crypto will be an asset class that we cannot ignore, but today I don’t think there is a place for private bankers and for private bank portfolios.”

Furthermore, Tee also cautioned about the volatility in the crypto sector in the last couple of years, adding that the Pictet teams were carefully watching the situation as it unfolds. As he stated:

“If you look at the volatility for the last two years, you can make a lot of money, you can lose a lot of money. (…) The question is, when do we bring the clients into the picture?”

Wealth managers’ interest in crypto

Elsewhere, multinational investment management giant BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) has partnered with Coinbase to link its institutional clients who own assets on the crypto exchange with the Aladdin asset manager suite of tools.

Meanwhile, 200-year-old asset manager Schroders has purchased a minority stake in New York-based crypto company Forteus as part of its efforts to expand research in the blockchain sector, Finbold reported in late July.

At the same time, Schwab Asset Management, the asset management division of The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) announced the debut of the Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF, its first exchange-traded fund (ETF) linked to cryptocurrencies.

Earlier in July, Ronald-Peter Stoeferle, the managing partner at investment management firm Incrementum AG, said that Bitcoin (BTC) has overshadowed gold despite the bear market. In the long term, he stated that the flagship crypto will become a less risky asset and eventually become a store of value.

Finally, in early April, Mary Rich, the new global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs’s (NYSE: GS) private wealth management division, announced the bank would start offering its first investment vehicles for Bitcoin.

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