Wealth management
The volume of assets managed by the banks in Switzerland rose by 4.8% in 2025 to CHF 9,729.1 bn, beating the record-high figure from 2024. This growth reflected a recovery on the stock markets.
Assets under management for customers resident in Switzerland rose by CHF 203.4 bn in 2025, those of foreign-domiciled customers by CHF 241.7 bn. This led to solid growth of 4.8% in total assets under management at Swiss-based banks, driven mainly – as in 2024 – by the recovery in securities holdings, which were up 7.3%. Securities holdings made up by far the largest component of assets under management, at around 88%, and reached their highest level since 2015 in 2025. They thus continued their recovery after having posted sharp falls in 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, the smaller items declined, with fiduciary liabilities down 10.2% and amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits down 11.1%. Nevertheless, both of these figures remain at high levels in historical terms. 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 steadily overall since 2015, before dropping back in 2022. They then rebounded in 2023 and 2024 and rose to a new all-time high in 2025.
TRENDS IN 2026
Assets under management reach new high in first half of 2026
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Trends in 2025
Assets under management for domestic and foreign customers
Assets under management at banks in Switzerland grew by 4.8% in 2025 to CHF 9,729.1 bn. Assets of both domestic and foreign customers rose, with the increase entirely due to growth in their securities holdings in bank custody accounts.
Assets under management comprise securities holdings in bank custody accounts (CHF 8,585.7 bn), amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits (CHF 931.9 bn), and fiduciary liabilities (CHF 211.5 bn). Securities holdings were CHF 585.5 bn higher year-on-year, driven in particular by the positive stock market trend. The Swiss Market Index (SMI) gained 14.1% in 2025, improving not only on the sharp fall of 17% in 2022 but also the comparatively moderate growth of around 4% in 2023 and 2024. In contrast to securities holdings in bank custody accounts, amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits were down 11.1%, while fiduciary liabilities were down 10.2%. This was probably due first and foremost to rotations into other types of investment. As interest rates were cut, fiduciary investments in particular became less attractive, while securities holdings continued to rise, accounting for all of the increase in assets under management. With a share of around 88%, they are by far the largest component of assets under management.
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 2015 and 2021, however, assets under management clawed their way back from CHF 6,568.4 bn to CHF 8,833.2 bn, before a significant setback to CHF 7,846.8 bn in 2022 as a consequence of the negative market performance. They have been rising steadily since 2023 and reached a new high in 2025. In 2023 and 2024, this trend was aided by recovering stock markets and higher interest rates making bonds more attractive. This resulted in a 2024 figure of CHF 9,284.0 bn, well above the 2021 record. Bonds were flat in 2025, while securities holdings were boosted by sharply rebounding stock markets. Assets under management continued to grow, therefore, and hit a new all-time high of CHF 9,729.1 bn.
The stand-out feature over the longer-term perspective is the fall in the proportion of assets belonging to foreign-domiciled customers, from 49.3% in 2015 to 45.9% in 2025. 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 1,228.4 bn or 37.9% in absolute terms over the same period. In 2025, they grew more strongly than those of domestic customers (up CHF 203.4 bn or 4.0%) in both absolute (CHF 241.7 bn) and relative terms (5.7%). This shows that Swiss banks continue to enjoy the trust of foreign customers against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty and a strong Swiss franc. Switzerland was still among the world leaders in cross-border wealth management for private clients in 2025, with holdings up 7.6% year-on-year (on a currency-adjusted basis) at CHF 2,945.7 bn.
Figure 18
Figure 19
Securities holdings
Figure 20
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 2025. The bull market bolstered shareholdings, pushing overall securities holdings 7.3% higher.
The main reason for the 7.3% rise in customers’ securities holdings in 2025 was the positive stock market trend. Securities holdings are broken down into the “equities”, “units in collective investment schemes”, “bonds” and “other” categories. Various central banks began cutting their headline interest rates in 2024 in view of falling inflation and either kept them low or cut them further in 2025. Geopolitical uncertainties remain. The SMI gained 1,643 points or 14.1% over the course of the year, getting much closer to the growth rates of technology indices like the NASDAQ 100. The latter outperformed the SMI somewhat in 2025 with a 21.4% increase, but this was well below the record gain of 53.8% it posted in 2023. Technological innovations, notably in artificial intelligence, continue to drive this trend. Rising share prices are clearly mirrored in equity holdings, which rose by 11.1% in 2025 to CHF 3,363.4 bn and thus got close to the record level of CHF 3,375.7 bn from 2021 without actually beating it. As in 2024, units in collective investments schemes were also higher, although their increase was somewhat lower than in the prior year at CHF 221.3 bn or 7.2%. They remain at their highest level for at least ten years. Investments such as funds enjoy continued popularity in times of heightened uncertainty and low interest rates because they offer scope to diversify portfolios and are also more attractive than interest-based investments. Bonds, meanwhile, ran contrary to this upward trend in 2025 with a slight fall of CHF 11.2 bn or 0.8%. Looking back over the past decade, we can see that equities have been the main driver behind growth in securities holdings. They gained 50.3% between 2015 and 2025, while bonds managed just 14.3%. Equities made up the biggest share of securities holdings in 2025 at 39.2%, followed closely by collective investment schemes with 38.2%. Similar proportions have been observed frequently over the past ten years. The Swiss franc appreciated relative to both the euro (by 0.9%) and the US dollar (by 12.3%) over the course of 2025. This is likely to have been caused by increased demand for the franc as a safe haven in an environment characterised by geopolitical and economic policy uncertainty and a weak dollar.
Custody account holdings by currency
In the breakdown of custody account holdings by currency, there was a small shift from the US dollar to the Swiss franc in 2025, while the shares of the euro and other currencies remained largely stable. Over half of all custody account holdings were still denominated in Swiss francs at the end of 2025. Just over a quarter were in US dollars, with the euro and other currencies accounting for 20% between them.
The Swiss franc share of securities holdings in customer accounts rose by around 1.2 percentage points to 52.0% during the year, meaning that the franc remains the most important investment currency. The share of holdings in US dollars dropped by a similar extent to 28.1%. The Swiss franc’s appreciation against the dollar was probably one reason for this. Only minor changes were observed in the other currencies’ shares, with the euro adding 0.3 of a percentage point year-on-year and the rest just 0.2 of a point. Around two thirds of domestic investors’ custody account holdings were held in Swiss francs, whereas a similar proportion of US dollar and euro holdings were attributable to foreign customers.
Figure 21
Assets under management reach new high in first half of 2026
Assets under management at banks in Switzerland exceeded the previous year’s record level in the first five months of 2026, growing by a further 4.0% on the back of higher securities holdings.
Assets under management rose sharply in the first months of 2026, beating the record level from the end of 2025 with an increase of 4.0% to CHF 10,119.5 bn. Domestic and foreign-domiciled customers contributed equally to this trend as both saw their assets rise by 4.0%.
The positive trend can be attributed to the increase in securities holdings and fiduciary liabilities. Securities holdings contributed by far the most to growth in absolute terms because they make up the biggest share of assets under management. They were up 4.7% at CHF 8,964.6 bn, higher than the record level from the end of 2025, probably thanks to bullish stock markets.
Fiduciary liabilities were also sharply higher, up 7.1% at CHF 227.9 bn, although this was still a little below the record level seen in 2024 following a marked decline in 2025. This increase was driven primarily by amounts due to foreign-domiciled customers, which increased by 8.7%. Amounts due to Swiss-domiciled customers showed a rise of only 1.0%.
Amounts due to customers excluding sight deposits, meanwhile, were down 2.9% as the figure for foreign-domiciled customers fell by 11.8%. The corresponding liabilities in favour of Swiss-domiciled customers were largely stable, showing a marginal increase of 0.2%.