Pictet & Cie
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| Industry | Private banking, Wealth management, Institutional asset management, Investment funds |
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| Founded | 1805 in Geneva |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Total assets | USD 400 billion (30 September 2012) |
| Employees | c. 3000 |
| Website | http://www.pictet.com/ |
Pictet & Cie is a Swiss bank, founded in 1805 in Geneva. It is organised as a partnership owned and managed by eight general partners with unlimited liability for the bank's commitments.
The Pictet Group, headquartered in Geneva, has offices in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Basel, Brussels, Dubai, Florence, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Lausanne, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Montreal, Nassau, Osaka, Paris, Rome, Singapore, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Turin, Tokyo and Zurich.
Pictet offers private banking, institutional asset management, investment funds and services to independent asset managers. The bank specialises on independent asset management.
The firm has 3,200 employees, including 600 investment managers, and runs 23 branches around the world.[1]
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History
Pictet & Cie traces its origin to the foundation of Banque de Candolle Mallet & Cie on 23 July 1805. At that time, it had two managing partners, Jacob-Michel-François de Candolle and Jacques-Henry Mallet, as well as three limited partners, Jean-Louis Mallet, brother of Jacques-Henry, Paul Martin and Jean-Louis Falquet. The bank was located at the Cour St-Pierre, in the old town of Geneva, until 1819. Although the Pictet family had been intimately engaged with the bank since the mid 19th century, it was only in 1926 that the Bank changed its name to Pictet & Cie.
After a period of relative stagnation marked by the Depression of the 1930s and two World Wars, the bank began to expand in the 1950s as the Western world entered a prolonged period of prosperity and economic growth. During this time, for reasons of locality, reputation for service and, during the Cold War, neutrality, Geneva grew to become one of the world's leading diplomatic and financial centres.
Since the 1970s Pictet has been working with independent asset managers and their clients worldwide, offering them a set of services specially designed for this particular financial management activity.
Pictet Funds S.A., wholly owned by Pictet & Cie, was founded in 1997 as the Management Company for Pictet's own line of investment funds. Pictet Funds S.A. distributes more than 100 investment funds including equity funds, bond funds, specialised funds, and sector- and theme based funds.
Pictet celebrated its bicentennial in 2005 after surviving and prospering during two centuries of political upheavals and financial crises. The following year the bank moved to new headquarters in the developing district of Acacias, in Geneva.
In 2008, the Bank launched the Prix Pictet, the world's first and premier photographic prize dedicated to the theme of sustainable development.
FundPartner Solutions (Europe) S.A., a Luxembourg based 100%-affiliate of the Pictet Group, was created in 2012 to offer its clients comprehensive services related to the creation, central administration and supervision of investment funds.
On November 26, 2012, it was reported that Pictet & Cie's wealth management unit was the target of a United States Department of Justice investigation.[2]
In 2012, Pictet opened a branch in Israel, due to its reputation as a Start-Up Nation with a growing number of high-tech entrepreneurs and financial industry executives who have become wealthy in recent years.[3]
Structure
Managing private fortunes has been the bank's core business for over 200 years, offering dedicated management and advisory services for individuals; family office and global custody. Pictet Asset Management includes all the operating subsidiaries and divisions of the Pictet group that carry out institutional asset management through specialised, traditional and alternative products,with active or passive management. Pictet provides a consolidated view of assets held and managed across multiple relationships, in over 80 markets. Set up in the early nineties, the purpose of the Pictet Alternative Investments (PAI) department is to select hedge fund managers and private equity managers both for its clients and for its own funds-of-funds. Pictet launched its first fund of hedge funds in June 1994, subsequently developing a broad spectrum of products, including third-party funds and services linked to alternative investments.