Private bank or independent asset manager: what sets them apart in Geneva

A private bank and an independent asset manager (in French, a gérant de fortune indépendant, or GFI) can run the same portfolio, but they are not the same kind of institution. The first is a bank: it opens the account, holds the assets and, as a rule, also manages the investments. The second manages investments on behalf of clients without holding the money or the securities itself. That difference determines who supervises the firm, where the assets sit if something goes wrong, and how the fees are presented.

This page compares types of provider, never individual firms. It describes facts taken from official texts and from our data on Geneva; it does not say which type suits which client. For a wider view, see the guide to choosing a wealth manager and the which-type-of-manager tool.

Private bank and independent asset manager at a glance

The percentages in the table come from our Geneva dataset, as of 17 October 2026: see the Geneva data page.

Who supervises a private bank in Geneva?

A bank needs a FINMA licence and stays under its direct supervision. In our data, all 36 Geneva private banks are in this position: none is attached to a supervisory organisation (as of 17 October 2026, Geneva data). FINMA publishes the list of institutions it has authorised: authorised institutions, individuals and products.

The scope of a bank's supervision is wide: capital, liquidity, organisation and risk management. It goes beyond wealth management alone, since a bank also takes deposits and may grant loans. The list of private banks in Geneva covers these institutions.

Who supervises an independent asset manager?

An asset manager needs a FINMA licence under the Federal Act on Financial Institutions (FinIA): the Act makes asset managers, trustees and managers of collective assets, among others, subject to a licence (Art. 2 and 5 FinIA). Ongoing supervision, however, is not carried out by FINMA itself but by a supervisory organisation that FINMA has authorised. The authorised organisations appear in the FINMA list: AOOS, OSFINcontrol, OSIF and SO-FIT.

In our data, 77.1 % of the 380 Geneva IAMs are attached to a supervisory organisation (as of 17 October 2026, Geneva data). The others are licensed directly by FINMA under another status. Across all 549 Geneva institutions we track, the split is as follows:

Source: FINMA list cross-checked with Zefix (the Swiss commercial register index), registered office in Geneva, as of 17 October 2026.

The list of independent asset managers in Geneva shows the supervisory organisation on each profile.

Can an independent asset manager hold my assets?

Not in the usual model. An IAM does not hold its clients' assets: the cash account and the securities account are opened in the client's name with a custodian bank. The manager acts under a management mandate and a power of attorney limited to management, which allows it to place orders. The custodian bank executes the orders and issues the statements.

Two practical consequences:

• the client can in principle change manager without moving the assets, by revoking the power of attorney;
• there are two contractual relationships: one with the manager (the mandate) and one with the custodian bank (the account and the securities account).

The assets remain subject to the rules that protect the custodian bank's clients, set out below. The custodian bank is itself a bank licensed by FINMA; it is not necessarily a private bank in the sense of our category.

What happens to my assets if the bank fails?

The Banking Act (BankA, SR 952.0, text in French) distinguishes two situations.

Securities held in custody (securities and fund units kept in a custody account) are segregated from the bankruptcy estate: under Art. 37d BankA, custody assets within the meaning of Art. 16 BankA are segregated in accordance with Art. 17 and 18 of the Federal Act on Intermediated Securities. They therefore do not form part of the bank's estate.

Cash deposits fall under a different regime. Art. 37a BankA places deposits held in the depositor's name, including cash bonds, up to a maximum of CHF 100,000 per creditor, in the second class within the meaning of Art. 219 para. 4 of the Federal Act on Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy. Art. 37h BankA requires banks to secure these privileged deposits held at their Swiss branches and, before accepting them, to join the banks' self-regulation system. That system is run by esisuisse, whose website sets out the conditions of application; securities, in particular, are not covered by deposit protection, since the bank merely holds them for the client.

These rules apply in the same way to a private bank that holds the assets itself and to an IAM's custodian bank. They concern the bank's failure, not the performance of the investments.

Which rules of conduct apply to both?

The Federal Act on Financial Services (FinSA, SR 950.1) applies to financial service providers, banks and asset managers alike. Among other things, it provides for:

• client segmentation (retail, professional, institutional);
• a check that the service is appropriate or suitable for the client's situation;
• duties to inform about the provider, its services, its costs and its conflicts of interest;
• documentation requirements;
• affiliation with a recognised ombudsman for providers that serve retail clients.

A client can therefore put the same questions to a private bank and to an IAM: how am I classified, on what basis was my profile drawn up, what will I pay, who receives what, and which ombudsman can I turn to? These rules are explained in detail in the guide FinIA and FinSA explained.

Retrocessions: what does the law say?

A retrocession is a payment received from third parties, for example a fund promoter, in connection with the service provided to the client. It is dealt with in Art. 26 FinSA ("Third-party payments"), not in FinIA. A provider may accept such payments in only two cases: either it has expressly informed the client in advance and the client waives them, or it passes the payment on to the client in full. The information must cover the nature and extent of the payment and be given before the service is provided or the contract is concluded; if the amount is not known in advance, the provider discloses the calculation parameters and ranges, and must, on request, state the amounts actually received. The text is on fedlex.

This rule applies to all financial service providers: it does not distinguish between banks and IAMs. For fee structures in general, see the guide on wealth management fees in Switzerland.

How are the fees structured?

We publish no rates. In our Geneva data, the median fee is published for neither private banks nor IAMs: it is only published from 5 values, and the number of values is 0 for private banks and 1 for IAMs (as of 17 October 2026, Geneva data).

What can be described is how the fees are split:

• With a private bank, the relationship runs through a single institution. Management, securities custody, transaction and currency costs may appear on the same invoice or statement. FinSA requires information on costs, but how they are presented varies from one institution to another.
• With an IAM, the manager's fee is paid to the manager, and the custodian bank's charges (custody, brokerage, currency exchange) are paid to the bank. The client therefore has, in principle, two sources of invoicing to add together.

In both cases the question to ask is what is included in the advertised price and what is charged on top. The fee calculator lets you enter assumptions of your own choosing; it does not rely on any rate published by the institutions.

What about the minimum deposit?

Each institution sets its own minimum freely, and most do not publish it. A private bank's minimum deposit in Geneva is rarely public: our data show that the share of Geneva institutions that have published a minimum investment is 5.6 % for private banks and 1.1 % for IAMs (as of 17 October 2026, Geneva data). With 2 values for private banks and 4 for IAMs, no median is published by type; across all types, the median of the 6 published minimums is CHF 250,000.

The minimum amount for a relationship cannot be read in a directory: it is requested from the institution, in writing. The wealth management in Geneva page gives, profile by profile, the information each institution has made public.

What is the difference in independence?

Here "independent" means an institution that does not belong to a banking group. In our Geneva data, it applies to 100 % of the 380 IAMs and to 0 % of the 36 private banks; across all 549 institutions, the share is 93.4 % (as of 17 October 2026, Geneva data).

Independence from a group says nothing about the quality of management and does not by itself settle the question of conflicts of interest: an IAM can also receive third-party payments (see above). It only indicates who owns the institution. The question to ask is a plain one: does the institution offer only its own products, or those of third parties as well, and on what terms?

What to check before signing

The points below apply to a private bank and to an IAM alike:

1. The licence. Look the institution up in the FINMA list of authorised institutions. A company name that does not appear on the list is not licensed under that name.
2. The supervisory organisation. For an IAM, identify the supervisory organisation shown in the FINMA list.
3. The custodian bank. For an IAM, its name, whether the account is opened in the client's name, and the exact scope of the power of attorney.
4. The fees, in writing. The manager's fee, the custodian bank's charges, product costs, and what is charged on top.
5. Retrocessions. If the institution receives any, how it informs the client before signing and what it passes on (Art. 26 FinSA).
6. The ombudsman. The name of the ombudsman the provider is affiliated with.
7. The minimum investment and the exit terms, in writing: notice period, closing fees, transfer of securities.

Our method for collecting and verifying data is described on the methodology page. For another comparison of types, see independent asset manager or family office.