At the time of Principal Closing of Julius Baer’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business outside the United States (IWM) on 1 February 2013, MLBS was the first business to transfer to the Julius Baer Group. MLBS as a Swiss bank entity had its own strong international client base and assets under management of CHF 11 billion.

The next step was the legal merger which took place on 31 May 2013, in line with the IWM integration plans. At the legal merger MLBS as a legal entity ceased to exist. The business was integrated into Bank Julius Baer and will continue to operate under the Julius Baer brand with immediate effect. New functional reporting lines have been in place since 1 June 2013.

Rémy A. Bersier, Member of the Executive Board of Bank Julius Baer, commented: “With MLBS joining Julius Baer, the Geneva hub will gain even more importance going forward. Julius Baer already had a strong presence in French-speaking Switzerland but as a result of the integration of MLBS, Geneva’s position as a center of competence will be further strengthened. Both teams have worked hard towards this merger in the last few months and a strong joint foundation has been established. I look forward to further developing this cooperation.”

The last step of the integration of MLBS into Bank Julius Baer will be the technical merger which is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2014. Then the current IT platform of MLBS will be integrated into Julius Baer’s core banking platform.