Banks Julius Baer increases assets under management in the first four months
Julius Baer has increased its assets under management to a record level, but fell short of expectations in terms of new money. Nevertheless, the half-year profit is expected to rise significantly.
22.05.2026, 07:37
SDA
In the first four months of 2026, private bank Julius Baer increased its assets under management to a new high and attracted further new money. Despite somewhat weaker client activity of late, the bank expects half-year profit to exceed the previous year's figure.
As at the end of March, assets under management (AuM) amounted to CHF 528 billion compared to CHF 521 billion at the end of 2025, as the Zurich-based wealth management bank announced on Friday. Positive market performance on the equity markets provided support, while the currency effect had a dampening effect.
Net new money inflows in the first four months amounted to CHF 3.0 billion, which corresponds to a slowdown compared to the previous year's inflow of CHF 4.2 billion. Julius Baer attributes this to the "continued implementation of the comprehensively revised risk and compliance framework" as well as increased uncertainty due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and a pause in client re-leveraging.
The annualized net new money rate thus still amounted to 1.7 percent after 2.7 percent in the second half of 2025. This means that inflows are still below the Group's medium-term ambitions: it aims to attract net new money of 4 to 5 percent of assets under management by 2028, as it reiterated.
The bank also earned significantly more on assets under management than in the previous year. The gross margin now amounted to 90 basis points (bp) in the first four months, compared to 80 bp in the second half of 2025.
The bank has also made progress in terms of cost efficiency. The adjusted cost/income ratio was 62 percent after 67 percent in the first half of the year.
Julius Baer did not meet analysts' forecasts with the figures presented. Overall, they had expected net new money inflows of CHF 5.3 billion on average (AWP consensus). They had also expected client assets to be higher at CHF 534 billion.
Following a slowdown in client activity in April, the Group does not currently expect the exceptionally high level of client activity seen in the first quarter of 2026 to be reached again in the coming months, it added. Nevertheless, it expects IFRS net profit for the first half of 2026 to be "significantly higher than in the first half of 2025".
