Swiss banking giant Pictet makes Africa debut amid foreign banks’ exit

Banque Pictet & Cie, the Swiss multinational private bank and financial services group, has established its first office in Africa after securing regulatory approval to open a representative presence in South Africa, marking a historic expansion in the firm’s more than 220-year history.

The move comes as several international banks have exited or scaled back operations across the continent—particularly in South Africa—over the past decade, citing rising compliance costs, currency volatility and increasingly saturated markets. Departures have included HSBC and BNP Paribas, while others, such as Barclays, Standard Chartered and Bank of Baroda, have reduced their footprints.

Authorisation from the country’s Prudential Authority reflects renewed global interest in Africa’s fast-growing private wealth segment. Its status as one of the continent’s largest and most sophisticated financial hubs, combined with its concentration of high-net-worth individuals, makes it a strategic entry point for global wealth managers seeking exposure to Africa’s expanding affluent class.

Headquartered in Geneva, Pictet specialises in wealth management, asset management and asset servicing for private and institutional clients.

The group oversees more than $900 billion in assets under management, ranking among Europe’s largest privately owned financial institutions and Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets under management after UBS.

Its African expansion coincides with a structural shift in the continent’s wealth landscape. The number of African millionaires is projected to rise by roughly 65 percent over the next decade, supported by entrepreneurship, natural-resource development, deepening financial markets and increasing cross-border investment flows.

Pictet remains privately owned and is governed by seven senior partners, alongside dozens of equity partners and an independent supervisory board. Continued leadership involvement from the founding family underscores the bank’s longstanding tradition of private ownership and partnership governance.