Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Lombard Odier has entered a strategic alliance in Japan with Mizuho Financial Group. The Swiss private banking group will introduce its services in Japan and give Mizuho bankers specialized training in serving wealthy customers.
The new headquarters building of Lombard Odier in Geneva will open in 2024 (© Herzog & de Meuron).
Expanded alliance
The strategic agreement concerns Lombard Odier Trust (Japan), part of the Lombard Odier Group, and Mizuho Financial Group. It builds on an existing relationship between their respective Singapore subsidiaries forged in 2018, mainly to provide investment services to wealthy Japanese expatriates in Asia.
Through the Strategic Alliance Agreement, Mizuho will be able to provide more advanced and fully-fledged wealth management services to Japanese high-net-worth clients by offering products and services that leverage the high expertise and global network of Lombard Odier, in addition to Mizuho Financial Group’s current suite of products and services, Mizuho said.
Lombard Odier and Mizuho will further enhance their client servicing excellence through personnel exchanges between the two financial institutions and the participation of Mizuho employees in Lombard Odier’s training programs.
Heated competition
The move is part of broader efforts by Japanese banks to build up their wealth management businesses to lure entrepreneurs and other affluent customers. Competition has been heating up as the banks view the sector as a stable source of fee income, the financial news agency Bloomberg reported.
Mizuho has been sharpening its focus on people whose assets exceed 3 billion yen (22.4 million dollars), such as business owners, according to the financial paper Nikkei. While the bank has a large client base, it saw its brand power and know-how in banking services for high-net-worth individuals as lacking. Lombard Odier, with over 225 years of experience, is a global wealth and asset manager, and a leader in sustainable investing.
Mizuho efforts
The Japanese financial group leverages the resources and expertise across its entire business lines to provide products and solutions that transcend the boundaries of finance to meet the diverse and sophisticated needs of high-net-worth individuals and their families, including asset management, real estate, inheritance and succession planning, and philanthropy. In 2021, it launched “Mizuho Connected Services”, a new membership service for its ultra-high-net-worth clients that provides a ‘one-stop’ service that caters to their wide range of needs.
Lombard Odier has been present in Asia for over 35 years, providing a comprehensive offering of wealth services to leading families and entrepreneurs in the region, and supporting the transition to a sustainable world using rigorous methodology, a scientific framework, and a wide range of investment solutions.
Text: SCCIJ with material of Mizuho FG
