- Domiciles
- Switzerland
Domicile · Europe
Switzerland.
Zürich is the custody office of the Private Wealth & UHNW division. The firm takes custody of nothing here: client assets in Europe are held by independent custodians, principally Seefeld Depositary, which was appointed in the year the office opened and also acts as depositary to the Luxembourg platform. Ten of the 61 family relationships are covered from this office, and US$60 million of the client portfolio under stewardship is attributed to Switzerland.
- People in Zürich
- 9
- Family relationships covered
- 10 of 61
- Client portfolio attributed
- US$60 million
- Custody relationships maintained
- 3
- Local entity
- IGUAKO Capital (Schweiz) AG
- Entity type
- Aktiengesellschaft; portfolio management and family-office company supervised through a recognised supervisory organisation
- Role
- Private wealth and custody relationships
- City
- Zürich
- Currency
- Swiss franc for the company; each family is reported in the currency it chooses
- Time zone
- Central European time, one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time
- Languages
- German, with French, Italian and English for client documents
- Region
- Europe
Presence
Nine people at Level 5, Paradeplatz Annex, Zürich, under Konstantin Aebischer-Mensah, Head of Office. The office opened in 2022.
Why this domicile
- A concentration of custody, precious metal vaulting and consolidated reporting capacity that no other European centre matches for a family with assets in several countries.
- A supervisory framework for portfolio managers that is demanding on conduct and clear on the line between advice, management and custody.
- German, French and Italian coverage of principals who prefer to discuss their own affairs in their own language.
- A base for the Chief Risk Officer within an hour of the Luxembourg hub and the European positions the risk function reviews.
The families served here are mostly principals whose operating businesses are in pharmaceuticals and specialty materials, sectors the firm originates in on other continents. Instructions are verified against the mandate before a custodian acts on them, and a mandate is re-read with the family once a year. No member of the office may give a payment instruction and approve it, and no client asset ever appears on the balance sheet of the Swiss company.
Dmitri Halloran-Veiga, Chief Risk Officer, works from Paradeplatz Annex, and the secretariat of the Risk & Valuation Committee sits with him. Illiquid positions across every division are revalued and challenged here each quarter under the Valuation of Investments policy. The office therefore holds a client-facing function and a second-line function in one building, and the two are separated by reporting lines that run to Nassau and to George Town rather than to each other.
Switzerland covers families; it does not book them. The private-wealth booking centre is Nassau, and a family covered from Zürich has its account relationship, its reporting and its exchange of information handled from there. The 2028 European phase of Programme Latitude deepens the custody arrangements as the fund platform grows, and adds a second consolidated-reporting analyst rather than a new licence.
Services booked here
- Coverage of Swiss, German and Austrian principals and their family holding companies.
- Maintenance of the custody relationships through which European client assets are held.
- Consolidated reporting across custodians in the currency each family chooses.
- Group risk management under the Chief Risk Officer, with the Risk & Valuation Committee secretariat.
- Quarterly review of the valuation of illiquid positions held anywhere in the group.
Local entities
The register.
| Entity | Purpose |
|---|---|
| IGUAKO Capital (Schweiz) AG | Authorised portfolio management company, employer of the Zürich team, incorporated in 2022. |
| IGUAKO Risk Services (Suisse) AG | Employs the group risk function and contracts the valuation specialists it uses. |
| Paradeplatz Reporting AG | Produces the consolidated multi-custodian reporting delivered to European families. |
Regulatory approach
IGUAKO Capital (Schweiz) AG holds the authorisation this jurisdiction requires of a portfolio manager and is affiliated to a recognised supervisory organisation, which conducts its ongoing supervision and reports to the local financial services regulator. The company manages portfolios and advises; it holds no client assets, operates no client accounts and is not a bank. Its managers are assessed for fitness and propriety before appointment, it maintains the minimum capital and the professional indemnity cover the regime prescribes, and it is audited every year by an auditor licensed for regulated firms. Affiliation to a recognised ombuds office is compulsory and is in place. Any activity that would require a banking or securities licence is referred to another group entity that holds one.
Regulatory notices
Six notices for Switzerland.
Each notice combines the group standard with the provisions that apply in this jurisdiction.