Julius Baer loan losses of $184m Added

Julius Baer has completed a credit review - which has led to a decision to manage down a subset of its loan positions, primarily in income-producing residential and commercial real estate.

The Lombard loan book and the traditional residential mortgage portfolio are resilient.

Lombard loans (also known as margin loans) are a type of secured loan where liquid assets (securities, bank balances) are pledged as collateral, typically granted to private wealth clients.  These loans may be significantly over-collateralized with liquid assets  - thus reducing risk to the lender.

The name is taken from the Lombards of Northern Italy, who first established the conventions of banking in the Middle Ages.

Benefits to banks are a relatively low-risk stream of additional income, while strengthening ties with important high net worth customers.

"We are now entirely aligned around our core wealth management proposition," CEO Stefan Bollinger said. Stefan started his career at Zurcher Kantonalbank as an interest rates derivatives trader.

He has introduced new measures since joining, including reducing the size of the executive board from 15 to 5, streamlined regional setup and is introducing efficiency measures.

Julius Baer is headquartered in Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich (a popular shopping street, largely pedestrianised). Key metrics including assets under management (497bn CHF for Dec24), and net new money (CHF bn) and total assets (CHF m) can be found on their financial information webpage.