“Hong Kong will continue to be a growth story for Julius Baer in the years to come.”

Julius Baer, which is headquartered in Zurich, is the third-largest Swiss lender after UBS and Credit Suisse, and is the biggest pure asset management firm in the country. It has a footprint in 60 markets in 25 countries.

“We believe that the pandemic is something transitory and we have not shifted any personnel across the globe. We always have people in the region, we expect to have high growth in future,” he said.

The firm had 428 billion Swiss francs (US$430 billion) of assets under management globally as of June. Its operations in Asia represent a quarter of its global business, according to its interim results in the first half of 2022.

Its Chinese assets under management have nearly tripled since 2016, and its workforce has more than doubled.

Julius Baer itself is from family office tradition. Founded in 1890, it was named after a banker who acquired the lender in 1901 and acted as a partner. He was succeeded by his sons and grandsons, though the bank also hires independent professionals to run it.

It has about 500 employees in its 72,000 square-foot office in Central. As it expands in Hong Kong, it will move to a new office at Two Taikoo Place next year, taking up nearly 100,000 sq ft while keeping a 14,000 sq ft office in Central.

“Hong Kong has always been the centre of gravity for North Asia, with its proximity to and its embedding also in China and the Greater Bay Area,” Rickenbacher said. “Hong Kong has been a very important stepping stone for us into the Chinese market. But it has also attracted business from the wider region.”

Hong Kong’s image as an international financial centre was dented by the tough quarantine rules in place from early 2020 until September this year. But the city is reconnecting with the world once more, after scrapping hotel quarantine in late September.

The current “0+3” requirement stipulates visitors undergo three days of medical surveillance during which they can go to work or study but cannot enter places that need vaccine passes such as restaurants or pubs.

David Shick, head of private banking, Greater China, at Julius Baer, said the 0+3 rule is still not ideal.

“It is definitely one level short for business travellers internationally and also for tourists,” Shick said.

But he believes the city can still attract talent and said not many of the bank’s staff had left Hong Kong.

“We have the normal migration pattern, but I have not seen an exodus. There are probably one or two of my staff out of 500 in Hong Kong who requested to transfer to Singapore, because they were Singaporeans to begin with,” he said.

“The challenge is to hire more talent in Hong Kong as the wealth management industry is growing much faster than the available talent pool.”

Other challenges include higher running costs and a tough overall investment environment.

“I see next year as a transition year still. There will be more interest rate rises next year,” he predicted.