For Europe’s wealthy individuals, wealth safety is not a luxury. It is the precondition for risk-taking. When wealth feels precarious, investment decisions stall. When wealth is secured, animal spirits return. On that simple premise, Switzerland continues to play an outsized role: a rules-based, low-inflation, institutionally conservative safe haven where capital can be parked without drama—and then redeployed into Europe’s real economy.
Start with the facts. The IMF still describes “persistent safe-haven flows” into Switzerland—code for money seeking shelter from geopolitical and policy noise elsewhere. The country remains the world’s leading location for cross-border private-client asset management, with CHF 2.43 trillion in such assets in 2024, up ~10% year on year. Beyond private banking, Switzerland has become Europe’s third-largest asset-management hub, with industry AuM around CHF 3.4–3.45 trillion in 2024. Roughly 30% of those assets are managed for foreign institutional clients, underscoring the country’s role as a continental booking and management centre.
A lot of Swiss money flows back into Europe
Wealth safety, however, is not an end in itself. It is a means to investment. Swiss managers do not sit on money; they deploy it—much of it back into Europe’s markets and companies. The Asset Management Association’s data highlight the sector’s high “export share,” i.e., funds managed in Switzerland on behalf of non-Swiss institutions and families, which are invested globally (Europe included). Family-office behaviour points the same way: European family offices (many operating from or via Switzerland) exhibit a pronounced home bias to Western Europe, making it their largest regional allocation. Meanwhile, private-capital activity across the continent is robust, giving no shortage of places to put money to work.
Critics will note that Switzerland’s wealth crown is contested. True. Deloitte shows the gap with the UK and US narrowing after the Credit Suisse collapse. But contested leadership is not the same as lost leadership. The market-share story is dynamic; the safety story endures—supported by the franc, political predictability, legal certainty, and supervisory muscle.
Security first, investment second … also at ImpactBuilders
The policy implication is unfashionable but sound: if Europe wants more investment at home, it should not begrudge entrepreneurs a Swiss vault. Security first; investment second. The presence of capital in Zurich or Zug does not preclude investment in Ghent or Milan; it often enables it. In a world of tariff spats and fractious politics, a credible safe harbour is the cheapest subsidy Europe can offer to its own risk-takers.
Our conclusion: consistent with this logic, we have anchored our own structures in Switzerland—a Swiss vehicle for our Studio investments and Swiss centres for our industry turnaround work—so that European capital can feel safe at rest and ambitious at work, back in Europe where the market merits it.
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