Strategic partnerships

Partnerships are an important cornerstone of VP Bank’s strategy. In an increasingly specialised competitive environment as well as with rapid technological development and increasing regulatory standardisation, we are convinced that no institution alone can offer its clients the best-possible services. 

Cooperative ventures are a means of combating rising costs, increasing efficiency, fostering innovation and jointly taking advantage of market circumstances. VP Bank is constantly sharing experiences with other banks and service providers in order to use and optimise available resources.

In the investment sector, we pursue the goal of offering our clients access to innovative solutions through partnerships that are not otherwise available or accessible. In spring 2020, we found ways to implement a new collaboration for our equity funds.

Due to the abundance of highly comparable investment solutions, it was important in the repositioning of the equity funds previously managed as fund-of-funds to choose an approach that would stand out from the mass of existing solutions. Instead of closely aligning with reference indices, so-called benchmarks, Bern-based OLZ Ltd. pursues a systematic, risk-optimised approach based on scientific findings. The focus here is on the portfolio with the lowest (expected) risk. In phases in which the market is trending strongly in the positive or negative direction, portfolios designed in this way can certainly exhibit significant deviations from the well-known indices. In combination with other collective investments that an investor usually already holds, this leads to a more stable performance over the market cycle.

OLZ Ltd. is responsible as an advisor for the portfolio design of VP Bank Risk Optimised ESG, for which VP Bank defines the specifications, including the sustainability requirements resulting from the sustainability philosophy. The funds are managed by VP Bank Fund Solutions in ­Liechtenstein.

In 2019, VP Bank and Hywin Wealth Management Co., Ltd. (China) announced their intention to establish a joint ­collaboration platform in Hong Kong as part of a strategic cooperation. The two companies are thus combining their respective strengths to create holistic, global asset management services for the fast-growing segment of Chinese (ultra) high net worth individuals ([U]HNW) inside and ­outside China. Details can be found in the section ­“Strategic orientation”.

Another partnership concerns Competence Center Eco­systems. CC Ecosystems, led by the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen, is a research and knowledge exchange platform that is open to all companies in the financial ­industry. In two-year research cycles, application-oriented issues defined by the partners of CC Ecosystems are worked on, with the findings then being made available to all members. VP Bank has been an Associated Partner in CC Ecosystems since the end of 2020 and hopes to ­intensify its exchange with other financial institutions, to gain access to the latest findings on success factors for the digital transformation and collaboration in ecosystems, and to acquire expert knowledge within the framework of innovation management.

Since 2010, VP Bank has worked with Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) on printing and mailing account and deposit statements, quarterly and annual reporting, and all types of customised bulk mailing, and has also created a joint purchasing company.

Another longstanding partnership exists with a third-party provider for the Group-wide procurement and management of financial information systems at optimised cost and performance. This partnership enables VP Bank to optimise all related processes such as operating and contract management, reporting and support while lowering costs on a lasting basis. Among the results of this partnership was the creation in 2011 of a joint venture with LLB for financial information systems procurement.