Client advisory

With its client advisory services, VP Bank focuses on personalised, long-term support, transparency, short decision- making paths, agility and tailored, sustainable solutions. The quality of client service and support is regularly assessed by independent specialists.

VP Bank’s client advisors work with clients in the private banking, intermediaries, corporate and lending segments. By assigning client advisors to clearly defined segments, the Bank ensures the best possible advisory quality and a focus on the specific needs of clients in each segment. Thanks to numerous synergies between the respective business segments, VP Bank clients benefit from attractive added value in the extensive products and services and pooled expertise.

The quality of client service and support is regularly assessed by independent specialists. The VP Bank advisory team once again received very high marks in connection with the Fuchsbriefe “TOPS 2022” test, which was published in Germany. VP Bank was rated “very good” in the cate­gories “Investment proposal” and “Advisory consultation”, with an overall rating of “good”. A total of 65 banks and investment advisors in German-speaking countries were tested.

This rating is confirmation of the rigorous efforts the Bank has made to strengthen its service and performance ­culture and to continually optimise the client experience. The independent test rating proves that VP Bank operates at the highest level in terms of advisory standards in an international comparison.

VP Bank’s clear strengths include its comprehensive, tailored client support and the combination of a wide variety of services. Complex client requirements are systematically recorded, and clients are regularly informed about their status. VP Bank systematically takes into account all sus­tainability criteria, the comprehensive economic, legal and risk aspects, and operational considerations.

The Bank’s services start with basic services for account and custody management and payments. Private clients moreover receive customised wealth management and investment advice, wealth planning, pension and estate planning, financing and fund solutions.

In the investment solutions area, VP Bank has a broad range of investment advisory and wealth management options. Clients can work together with their client advisor and investment specialists to put together an optimal portfolio that combines their own ideas with proposals from the Bank. Ongoing portfolio monitoring ensures compliance with the client’s risk profile and specifications. A specialised advisory team offers clients additional support for their specific individual requirements.

In the wealth management area, the investment strategy is specified as part of a mandate, with investment decisions then being delegated to VP Bank. Clients choose the mandate forms depending on total assets, risk tolerance and now also their sustainability requirements. Since the autumn of 2021, the Bank has offered the Sustainable Plus Mandate. Under this mandate, clients opt for a portfolio with a better sustainability profile as measured by the VP Bank Sustainability Score (VPSS), as well as for investments with a special impact that are used to finance green or social projects (impact bonds). Furthermore, clients can choose areas of special focus that are especially important to them, such as climate protection, renewable energies or health. In sum, wealth management ranges from Fund Mandates to Enhanced Mandates, where additional elements, like volatility, come into play.

Lending business is mainly geared to the linkage between investment and financing solutions, as well as to the design of customised solutions. With regard to the lending business, which is strongly rooted in the home market of Liechtenstein, VP Bank is a lender to retail and corporate clients. 

To ensure comprehensive support, VP Bank works together with external specialists, enabling it to suggest reliable partners to its clients for wealth planning, retirement and estate planning, tax advice, corporate earnings or corporate transactions.

Financial intermediaries and fund providers benefit from a variety of services tailored to their needs. In addition to basic services for account and portfolio management, custodian bank services and order processing, specific services are offered especially for intermediaries for ­investment advisory services, advice on regulatory issues, integration of sustainability aspects and fund solutions. With its direct execution service, VP Bank provides direct access to trading.

A broad range of digital solutions for sharing data and information makes VP Bank a leading bank for intermediary clients. The continuous development with respect to data interfaces and the modern client portal offer independence, transparency, efficiency and security, as well as round-the-clock electronic access to accounts and custody accounts.

For its client services, VP Bank relies on personal contact with advisors and specialists. This allows the Bank to ­recognise more complex client requirements in the best way while anticipating the needs of the future. 

In 2021, which continued to be marked by COVID-19 ­protective measures and the associated restrictions on personal contact, the Bank embedded the newly created digital solutions in client advisory services. In order to ­continue to ensure individual and personal advisory consultations for clients even under challenging conditions, VP Bank offers the option of advisory consultations via video conferences.

Advanced tools support client advisors during the entire advisory process, from the client meeting preparation phase to the execution phase following the meeting. Working digitally, various investment proposals can be directly simulated during the advisory meeting, adjustments can be made jointly and orders can be placed. Portfolio adjustments thereby become much more transparent and understandable to clients. This makes it possible to make well-informed decisions even during the client discussions, since the client advisor can provide immediate clarifications and answers to questions. 

A modern client portal developed specifically for VP Bank – the RM Cockpit – was introduced in 2021, and this made it possible to significantly optimise the daily advice and support provided by client advisors to their clients. Work processes that are even more efficient create more time for advising clients and designing customised solutions tailored precisely to client requirements. Through the use of digital tools, client advisors are able to comprehensively address client wishes anywhere and at any time.

By continuously expanding e-banking into a client portal, VP Bank is responding to the changing needs of clients with regard to the degree of digitisation of banking services; in doing so, it is increasing its focus on transparency and accessibility. The opportunities for interaction have been expanded, and the roll-out of the new messaging function enables a faster, more secure communication channel between the client and the Bank. Regardless of whether the client is logged in to the client portal, they can now be notified about the activities on their custody accounts and other accounts at any time. Moreover, during 2022, research publications offering macro-commentaries and investment ideas will be integrated into e-banking.

The changing environment of the banking world requires an optimised product and service range. VP Bank’s advisory concept therefore involves adapting the business model for traditional investment advice. With its systematic advisory process and ongoing development of services, the Bank has laid the foundation for the investment advisory service of the future.

VP Bank’s advisory process, which is clearly defined Group-wide, ensures that individual client needs are implemented professionally. The process provides client advisors with supporting guidelines based on default solutions for recurring processes and activities, digital and other resources, quality requirements, the definition of responsibilities, and collaboration between internal and external partners. This gives client advisors more time to support their clients on an individual, holistic basis. 

The steps in the advisory process include new client development, understanding, advising and implementing client preferences, and accompaniment of the implemen­tation.

The advisory process begins with attracting new clients. Most new clients are referred by VP Bank’s existing clients.

VP Bank seeks to get to know the client and his or her complete financial situation, since this understanding is essential for providing targeted advice. For private banking clients, that raises a series of questions: 

• Who am I dealing with? 
• What distinguishes this person and what motivates him? 
• What are his goals? 
• As a bank, how can we support him? 

In the case of intermediaries, the key is to understand the business model: 

• What is the intermediary’s business? 
• Who are its clients? 
• How is the intermediary positioned? 
• How does it do business? 
• How does it support its clients? 
• Where are its activities?

When proposing solutions, the bank systematically considers different alternatives and scenarios. Solutions are developed by teams made up of client advisors and specialists in direct contact with the client as needed.

The essence of VP Bank’s client care consists of the timely implementation of agreed-upon solutions or a clearly defined implementation timetable that meets the client’s expectations.

The advisory process does not end when the agreed-upon solution has been implemented. VP Bank periodically discusses the client’s preferences and profile with the client and adjusts the implementation accordingly.

On an ongoing basis, VP Bank ascertains and analyses its clients’ views on its services and assesses its advisory ­quality, thereby gaining valuable insight as to how it can adapt its services to satisfy client needs more effectively. Internal processes for the delivery of services are also reviewed and optimised in a targeted manner with the help of client feedback. A special focus is placed on innovative, pioneering services and offers. To do this, client opinions are systematically solicited in personal meetings, on contact forms on the website and in client surveys conducted on an ongoing basis.

If complaints are received, VP Bank seeks solutions for the specific situation in a personal dialogue with the client and then implements them. This approach makes it possible to derive the implications for relationship management and to use the insights gained also for optimisations to services and processes. In this way, VP Bank also satisfies the complaint resolution requirements of the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA).

Highly trained client advisors are the foundation of excellent support. In addition, the constant addition of new regulatory requirements means that VP Bank needs to train and develop its client-facing employees in a manner consistent with these requirements. VP Bank thus continuously invests in their training and continuing education. All client advisors at the Liechtenstein and Swiss locations have successfully completed the international certification according to the Swiss Association for Quality (SAQ) and are currently in the recertification phase. In addition to ongoing training on technical, economic and regulatory issues, all client advisors throughout the Group also invested between 16 and 26 hours in the past year in further developing their client-focused advisory approach.

As at 31 December 2021, VP Bank had client assets totalling CHF 51.3 billion, up 8.1 per cent from the previous year.

It also held another CHF 7.5 billion in custody assets. Client assets under management as of the reporting date totalled CHF 58.8 billion (previous year: CHF 54.9 billion).

Overall, VP Bank Group recorded a gross inflow of new money in 2021 totalling CHF 2.1 billion, or 4.3 per cent. This positive trend was adversely affected by the announced strategic repositioning by an institutional fund client in the amount of approximately CHF 1.8 billion. Thus, net new money amounted to CHF 277 million.