For time immemorial, we have been shaped by interpersonal relationships and the urge to seek out the new and unknown: trade, commerce and communication have played a pivotal role for mankind over the millennia. In the process, humans left their familiar surroundings and, driven by curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, ventured out to the four corners of the world on journeys of discovery.

So by no means is globalisation a new phenomenon, and it is certainly not just an invention of the Europeans. Its roots are to be found in the centuries-old avenues for buying, selling and communicating that have stretched since antiquity across the Mediterranean region, Africa and the Middle East, all the way to India, China and ultimately North and South America.

The creative leitmotif of our 2012 annual report is: “on the move”. By highlighting the key trade routes of the past four thousand years, it illustrates the dynamic force and flow that has always carried humanity to new horizons.

The rendering of banking services has forever gone hand-in-hand with this evolution of trade and communication. And the means and modes of payment along these routes have been constantly refined.

VP Bank itself is also “on the move” by discovering new products, new advisory approaches, new markets – and above all, new contacts to people and new clients. A passion for the new plays the most important role in VP Bank’s way of exchanging ideas and communicating. So navigate with us through the various passages of this annual report and get to know more about VP Bank.

The “Silk Road” refers to a network of caravan routes that connected the Mediterranean area with Central Asia and today’s China. From East to West and vice versa, it was a path not just for merchants, scholars and armies, but also for ideas, religions and entire cultures. Only very few people made the entire journey – the goods they transported were usually passed on in barter transactions at the various outposts along the way. But one who did make it, and the most notable Silk Road traveller, was Marco Polo.

In 1271, seventeen-year-old Marco, along with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo Polo, took leave of Venice. On foot, horseback, camels and even ships, they mastered the arduous yet adventurous four-year odyssey. Along the Silk Road, they discovered a flourishing trade in precious stones, pearls, silk fabrics, ivory, spices, handicrafts and much more. By 1275 they had reached their goal: China. There, Marco Polo met Kublai Khan, the great ruler of Mongolia and grandson of Genghis Khan. Kublai’s empire at the time stretched from China to the region of today’s Iraq in the west and Russia in the north. The Great Khan found favour in the young European and named him his prefect. With that title in his pocket, Marco Polo roamed through China in all heavenly directions for several years before returning to Venice by sea on a voyage that lasted from 1292 to 1295.

Over time, ships of the great trading companies superseded the Silk Road as the route to Eastern Asia, where they brought back luxury goods and artworks for the gentry of Europe.