STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

In an increasingly specialised competitive environment being shaped by rapid technological development coupled with ever-expanding regulatory requirements, partnerships are essential for the further development of innovative services that are closely aligned with client needs. This is why they are a key pillar of VP Bank’s strategy.

Partnerships pave the way for VP Bank to counteract rising costs, increase efficiency and foster innovation. For this reason, continually sharing knowledge with other banks and service providers is paramount.

VP Bank has been an Associated Partner of the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen since 2020. This partnership allows VP Bank to conduct an in-depth exchange with other financial institutions in the field of innovation. In two-year research cycles, application-oriented questions are researched within individual Competence Centers, and the results are made available to all members. Furthermore, VP Bank also receives the latest findings on digi­tisation success factors and cooperation within ecosystems, as well as access to expert knowledge in the field of inno­vation management.

To ensure that we continue to have accurate knowledge of changing client needs in the future and can offer tailored solutions, VP Bank relies on data-based artificial intelligence in addition to tried-and-tested personal contacts. This is why VP Bank has worked together closely with the AI Center, the research centre for artificial intelligence at ETH Zurich, since 2021. The partnership allows VP Bank to profit from the exchange of knowledge between researchers and company representatives within the AI Center community. This means, among other things, that this knowledge can be integrated directly into internal projects, and that VP Bank receives direct access to talent in the AI community.

In 2021, VP Bank also joined Synpulse’s Open Wealth ­Association and the Swiss Open Wealth Association. VP Bank took this step in order to explore new business and collaboration models and also to participate in the definition of application programming interface (API) standards. Moreover, these cooperations allow the Bank to participate in the exchange of specialist knowledge in the form of round tables, workshops and white papers, and also to work together with similar organisations in Switzerland and abroad.

In conjunction with the new IT strategy, VP Bank made the decision to outsource its IT infrastructure tasks to Swisscom. This step is consistent with the technological trends towards increasing standardisation and industrialisation, which are promoted by cloud services in particular. Outsourcing allows VP Bank to benefit from the high level of expertise of the technology specialist in this area. At the same time, synergies arise from the use of additional innovative technologies and the improvement of cyber security measures. However, despite this outsourcing, VP Bank will continue to invest in the development of in-house technological expertise as the implementation of Strategy 2026 requires a consistently high level of internal technological competence.

In June 2021, VP Bank entered a partnership for innovation with InvestCloud with the goal of establishing the basis for the provision of personalised wealth management services through ecosystems that are supported by an Open Wealth Service platform.

In the first quarter of 2021, VP Bank concluded a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership with Hywin Wealth Management Co., Ltd., in Hong Kong with the aim of meeting the demand of high-net-worth Chinese citizens for sophisticated wealth management services abroad. The strategic partnership includes working together to develop products and services in the area of wealth management and the custody of client funds. The strategic nature of the partnership is underscored by VP Bank’s stake in the capital procurement activities of Hywin Holdings Ltd (“Hywin Holdco”).

In spring 2020, VP Bank entered into a new partnership with OLZ Ltd. for its equity funds. OLZ Ltd. serves as a consultant for the portfolio construction of VP Bank Risk Optimised ESG. The portfolio construction requirements have been defined by VP Bank. They include, for example, sustaina­bility requirements that have been derived from the Bank’s sustainability philosophy. The funds are managed by VP Fund Solutions (Liechtenstein) AG. Rather than closely following reference indices, or benchmarks, Bern-based OLZ Ltd. takes a systematic, risk-optimised approach based on scientific principles. Their primary focus is on creating portfolios with the lowest possible (expected) risk. In phases of strong positive or negative market performance, portfolios designed in this way can deviate significantly from well-known indices. In combination with other collective investments, which investors generally already have in their portfolios, this results in more stable returns over the course of the market cycle.

In December 2021, VP Bank Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding with Utopia Music Ltd., creating an oppor­tunity for investors to invest in the service sector of the ever-growing music industry. This reaffirms the Bank’s commitment to combining traditional banking with the benefits of digital ecosystems and access to novel investment opportunities to create innovative client experiences.

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

Another long-standing 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 related processes such as operating and contract management, reporting and support while sustainably lowering costs.

Among the results of this partnership was the creation in 2011 of a joint venture with LLB for financial information systems procurement.