Union Bancaire Privée outsources E5.5bn to EFA

SWITZERLAND – Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privée has decided to outsource its fund administration to Luxembourg-based European Fund Administration.

The move entails the transfer of some UBP staff to EFA, though a spokeswoman declined to say how many.

“Union Bancaire Privée has decided to outsource the administration and transfer agency for its fund range to EFA, a mandate involving 5.5 billion euros in assets under management,” the two companies said in a statement.

The Geneva-based bank will now focus on asset management, product manufacturing and custody. The decision follows its June 2002 acquisition of Discount Bank and Trust Co.

UBP said that EFA would manage the migration of 54 funds onto its platform. It would also restructure the former DBTC and UBP fund ranges. Custody of the funds will be centralised and run in-house by UBP Luxembourg.

“We carefully analysed the pros and cons of outsourcing versus in-house administration and decided to partner with EFA mainly because the proposed outsourcing solution allows us to minimise our risk and to better control cost,” said UBP executive management member Ulrich Tschopp.

“We worked together with UBP to find a solution which would enable them to focus on their core competencies,” said Claude Hoffmann, EFA’s commercial director. “At the same time we endeavoured to reduce the social costs of the change by transferring a number of UBP staff to new positions at EFA.”

UBP, which specialises in private and institutional asset management, has 73 billion Swiss francs (46.8 billion euros) in assets under management.

EFA runs 1050 sub-funds with 66 billion euros under management distributed in 32 different countries.