Assets under management
Assets under management at banks in Switzerland rose by 10.6% year-on-year in 2024 to CHF 9,284.0 bn. This reflects both increased enthusiasm for bonds and the recovery of the equity markets. The record high from 2021 was thus beaten last year.
Assets under management for customers resident in Switzerland rose by CHF 461.6 bn in 2024, those of foreign-domiciled customers by CHF 430.7 bn. This led to solid growth of 10.6% in total assets under management at Swiss-based banks, As in 2023, the main driver was the recovery in securities holdings, which increased by 11.2%, probably due for the most part to market trends. Total securities holdings were back above the 2021 level after declining sharply in the intervening years. Securities holdings accounted for the bulk of assets under management, at around 86%. Smaller items also showed gains, with fiduciary liabilities up 5.4% and amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits up 7.8%. The breakdown of custody account holdings by currency changed only slightly relative to the prior year. The Swiss franc remained the dominant investment currency with a share of more than 50%. Assets under management had grown progressively overall since 2014, before dropping back in 2022. Half of this fall was recouped in 2023, and 2024 more than made up for the rest. The figure at the end of 2024 was thus a new record high.
TRENDS IN 2025
Assets under management remained high in first half of 2025
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Trends in 2024
Assets under management for domestic and foreign customers
Assets under management at banks in Switzerland grew by 10.6% in 2024 to a new high of CHF 9,284.0 bn. Assets of both domestic and foreign customers rose, with more than 90% of the increase accounted for by growth in their securities holdings in bank custody accounts.
Assets under management comprise securities holdings in bank custody accounts (CHF 8,000.2 bn), amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits (CHF 1,048.2 bn), and fiduciary liabilities (CHF 235.7 bn). Securities holdings grew by around CHF 804.8 bn year-on-year, mainly thanks to renewed enthusiasm for bonds and the recovery of the equity markets. The SMI gained some 4% in 2024, as it had in 2023 after shedding 17% in 2022. Amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits showed an increase of 7.8%, fiduciary liabilities 5.4%, both significantly lower than in 2023.
Securities holdings made up by far the largest component of assets under management, at around 86%, and were also the biggest driver of growth in 2024.
Trends in assets under management over time
Looking back over the longer term, assets under management at banks in Switzerland have grown substantially. They dropped sharply in the wake of the 2008 financial and economic crisis, with securities holdings in bank custody accounts especially hard hit as share prices plummeted. Between 2014 and 2021, however, assets under management clawed their way back from CHF 6,655.7 bn to CHF 8,833.2 bn, before a temporary but significant setback to CHF 7,846.8 bn in 2022 as a consequence of the negative market performance. Half of this loss was recouped in 2023 thanks to growing demand for bonds as a result of higher interest rates as well as the stock market recovery. This trend continued in 2024, bringing assets under management to a new all-time high of CHF 9,284.0 bn. The stand-out feature over the longer-term perspective is the fall in the proportion of assets belonging to foreign-domiciled customers, from 51.1% in 2014 to 45.5% in 2024. There are a number of reasons for this, chief among them the currency effect. Foreign customers hold a much higher proportion of their assets in euros and US dollars than their domestic counterparts. Since asset shares are calculated in Swiss francs, the assets of foreign customers decline relative to those of Swiss-based customers if the franc strengthens. Despite their shrinking share, foreign customers’ assets under management rose by CHF 824.4 bn or 24.2% in absolute terms over the same period. Switzerland was still the world leader in cross-border wealth management for private clients in 2024, with holdings up 10.0% year-on-year (on a currency-adjusted basis) at CHF 2,427.0 bn.
Figure 19
Figure 20
Securities holdings
Figure 21
Securities holdings account for the largest share of assets under management. Despite the US Federal Reserve maintaining its restrictive monetary policy and the prevailing geopolitical uncertainties, stock exchanges posted strong gains in 2024. The bull market bolstered holdings of both bonds and shares, pushing overall securities holdings 11.2% higher.
The main reason for the rise in customers’ securities holdings (comprising the categories “shares”, “units in collective investment schemes”, “bonds” and “other”) in 2024 was the positive trend on securities markets. The SMI gained 431 points or 4.0%. Tech indices performed markedly better, with the Nasdaq-100 posting an impressive gain of 28.1%. This uptrend came in an environment of sharply falling interest rates around the world and rapidly increasing use of technological innovations, particularly artificial intelligence. While heightened geopolitical uncertainties persisted, a further steep escalation that would have severely harmed the corporate earnings outlook failed to materialise.
Rising share prices were clearly reflected in holdings of shares, which rose by 9% in 2024 to CHF 3,026.9 bn, though this is far short of the CHF 3,375.7 bn they achieved in the record-breaking year of 2021. Bonds recorded slightly higher growth than shares, gaining CHF 133.6 bn (10.0%) year-on-year to CHF 1,464.9 bn. Units in collective investment schemes showed the largest increase, up CHF 386.3 bn or 14.5% at CHF 3,058.7 bn. This accounted for almost half (48.0%) of the overall growth and was the category’s highest level for at least ten years. In uncertain times, therefore, investment vehicles such as funds gained popularity. As well as being more attractive than shares due to low interest rates, they are also a means of diversifying portfolios.
Looking back over the past decade, we can see that shares have been the main driver behind growth in securities holdings. They gained 34.1% between 2014 and 2024, while bonds managed just 11.5%. Units in collective investment schemes made up the biggest share of securities holdings in 2024 with 38.2%. They thus enjoyed a record year, taking the lead from shares.
The Swiss franc depreciated relative to both the euro (by 1.2%) and the US dollar (by 7.2%) over the course of 2024. This was probably due to the SNB’s early monetary easing compared with other central banks.
Custody account holdings by currency
In the breakdown of custody account holdings by currency, the US dollar increased its share at the expense of the Swiss franc, while the euro and other currencies remained stable. Just over half of all custody account holdings were denominated in CHF at the end of 2024. Almost a third were in US dollars, with the euro and other currencies accounting for a little less than 20% between them.
The Swiss franc share of securities holdings in customer accounts fell by around 2.6 percentage points to 50.8% during the year, meaning that the franc remains the most important investment currency. The US dollar share rose to 29.9%. Only minor changes were observed in the other currencies, with the euro dropping 0.5 of a percentage point year-on-year and the rest just 0.1 of a point. Around two thirds of the Swiss franc holdings were held by Swiss-based investors, while for both the dollar and the European single currency the reverse was true, with roughly two thirds being foreign-held in each case.
Figure 22
Assets under management remained high in first half of 2025
Assets under management at banks in Switzerland were at a similar level to the record year of 2024 during the first few months of 2025, falling by only 0.6%. The main reasons for this slight decrease were lower amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits and lower fiduciary liabilities.
Assets under management fell slightly in the first months of the year (down 0.6%) but remained close to their record high at CHF 9,240 bn. The fall was primarily due to foreign-domiciled customers, whose assets dropped by 1.5%, while those of domestic customers were stable with a small increase of 0.1%.
The slight negative trend is the result of downturns in amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits and in fiduciary liabilities. Both items were sharply lower in the first months of 2025 for Swiss-domiciled as well as foreign-domiciled customers. Amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits declined by CHF 52 bn or 4.9%, fiduciary liabilities by CHF 18 bn or some 7.7%.
At the same time, however, securities holdings rose by 0.2% to CHF 8,000 bn, which explains why the overall change in assets under management was only minimal. That said, there were differing trends in securities holdings for Swiss-domiciled and foreign-domiciled customers. Domestic customers’ holdings were up 1.0% at CHF 4,312 bn, whereas those of foreign-domiciled customers were down 0.8% at CHF 3,688 bn. One of the main reasons for this drop was the fact that the majority of securities held by foreign-domiciled customers are denominated in currencies other than the Swiss franc, such as the US dollar, which lost a huge amount of value relative to the franc in the first half of 2025. The persistently high volume of assets managed by banks in Switzerland underscores the banking industry’s strength, the country’s role as a safe haven in times of geopolitical instability and the considerable trust customers here and abroad place in its banks.