Union Bancaire Privee, the Geneva private bank which got badly snarled in the $65 billion Bernard Madoff fraud, suffered a sharp fall in assets in the opening half of 2009 as clients fled hedge funds and other risky asset classes.
Union Bancaire Privee, the Geneva private bank which got badly snarled in the $65 billion Bernard Madoff fraud, suffered a sharp fall in assets in the opening half of 2009 as clients fled hedge funds and other risky asset classes.
UBP, which has disclosed an exposure of more than SwFr1 billion to the Madoff swindle, reported that client assets fell to SwFr81.6 billion at the end of June from SwFr100.7 billion at the end of 2008.
The hedge fund class was particularly hard hit, with assets nearly halving to SwFr25.7 billion from 45 billion at the end of 2008.
The fall reflects both the contraction of the alternative asset management industry, which started in the last quarter of 2008 and lasted throughout the first half of this year, and the flow of assets into traditional investments, UBP said.
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