«Krise ist ein produktiver Zustand. Man muss ihr nur den Beigeschmack der Katastrophe nehmen.»
Crisis is a productive state. You need only strip it of its aftertaste of catastrophe.
— Max Frisch
In 2001, launching a private bank was a spectacularly bad idea.
The Nasdaq was down 60% and still falling. Nobody wanted equities. Nobody wanted advice. The industry consensus was consolidate or die, and there were slides to prove it.
NPB Neue Privat Bank AG opened its doors anyway. Twenty-five years ago today.
For the record, the timing was not merely unfashionable — it was, on the numbers, dreadful. On 7 August 2001 the MSCI World already sat 24.9% below its March 2000 peak, and it had another 32% to fall before finding a floor in March 2003. A floor it reached, with immaculate comic timing, in the same month as SARS and the invasion of Iraq.
What followed:
2001 — Dot-com bust, 9/11
2007–09 — Lehman, Global Financial Crisis
2011 — Euro sovereign debt crisis
2015 — SNB removes the EUR/CHF floor
2015–22 — Negative interest rates
2020 — Global pandemic
2022 — Russia invades Ukraine; 60/40 stops working
2023 — A 167-year-old neighbour disappears over a weekend
2024–26 — Tariffs, and the next “unprecedented” event
And yet. Rebase the MSCI World to 100 on the day we opened, and it it is up 631% today, or 8.29% a year, compounded for a quarter of a century, starting from a hole a quarter deep.
The path there was less dignified than the destination. Roughly one trading day in four since 2001 has been spent more than 20% below the previous high. Fewer than one in ten was spent at a new one.
Which is rather the point. The best entry points always feel wrong at the time — and so, for the most part, does everything in between. That is precisely why clients keep someone on the other end of the telephone.
Almost everything about this business has changed in twenty-five years. Trading moved from voice to screen, research from paper to inbox, compliance from a drawer to a department. The machines became very good indeed at telling us what has already happened.
Three things at NPB have not changed.
Trust. Some of our client relationships are older than some of our employees. That is not a marketing line; it is a balance sheet built over twenty-five years, and one bad decision from being spent.
Competence. Data is abundant and free. Knowing what to ignore is neither.
Excellence. Or, as we put it rather less modestly in-house: a five-star, Four Seasons-like level of service. Because private banking, like hospitality, is a people's business — anticipate, don't react, and never make the client explain themselves twice.
Independent in 2001. Independent today. Still in Zurich. Still doing the unfashionable thing: knowing our clients, thinking for ourselves, and being accountable for both.
To our clients, our partners, our external asset managers, and every colleague past and present — thank you.
I am immensely proud to be part of the family!
Twenty-five years of your trust is not a milestone we treat lightly. The next twenty-five start tomorrow morning.
May the Trend be with you!
André
Everything in this document is for educational purposes only (FEPO)
Nothing in this document should be considered investment advice
Investing real money can be costly; don’t do stupid shit
Leave politics at the door—markets don’t care.
Past performance is hopefully no indication of future performance
The views expressed in this document may differ from the views published by NPB Neue Privat Bank AG
die letzten 25 Jahre NPB gut zusammen gefast! Well done André! Ich durfte ja das meiste miterleben! Xavier