Pursuits
Shuttered Geneva Offices Show Impact of Lost Banking Secrecy
- Empty, rundown offices are eyesores in city’s finance quarter
- Local banks are acquiring business from exiting foreign firms
geneva rooftops
Photographer: Michele Limina/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Three years after Lloyds Banking Group Plc sold its private bank in Geneva, the only signs of life at the now-empty building are piles of cigarette butts and nutshells lying on its dirty window ledges.
The riverside offices at Place de Bel-Air are a short walk away from the remaining private banks, hedge-fund managers and luxury-goods stores in the heart of the Swiss city. The locked entrance, where millionaire clients used to come and go, is a reminder that some of the biggest names in global finance have quit Geneva for good.