Mirabaud has opened a regional office in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The regional office of Switzerland-headquartered private bank will provide open-architecture wealth and asset management services across Middle East and South Asia

It offers tailor-made services for private clients and independent asset managers.

It also provides a wide range of investment vehicles, including Mirabaud and third party funds

Mirabaud (Middle East) Limited – a wholly owned subsidiary of Mirabaud, a banking group founded in Geneva in 1819 – said it had been granted a license by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to operate as an authorised firm in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

From its offices in the DIFC, Mirabaud will provide wealth and asset management services for its clients across the Middle East and South Asia.

Mirabaud, which has nearly $18 billion of assets under management (31.12.2006), employs more than 400 staff worldwide, with offices in Geneva, Zurich, Basel, Paris, Monaco, London, Montreal, Nassau, Hong Kong and now Dubai.

Through its open-architecture platform, Mirabaud’s DIFC office will create a window on the Middle East and South Asia regions for overseas investors keen to benefit from the strong growth in these markets, while also providing services to investors based in the region.

As an independent wealth and asset manager offering investment funds managed by both the bank and third parties, Mirabaud provides its clients with total flexibility in choosing their custodian bank, while offering competitive and transparent management costs.

Mirabaud’s model, developed in Switzerland, is unique to the Middle East and offers clients a very high level of personalised service.

Nasser Al Shaali, chief executive officer of the DIFC Authority, said:

“We are pleased to have Mirabaud join our growing family of wealth management and asset management service providers.

“There is immense demand in this region for such services, and we are confident that Mirabaud, through its new office at the DIFC, will make a significant contribution to the growth of the industry in the region – and to the growth of the region itself.”

Yves Mirabaud, managing partner and member of Mirabaud’s Executive Committee, said:

“The creation of Mirabaud (Middle East) Limited is fully in line with our expansion strategy: recruiting asset managers with client portfolios, who are capable of sharing our values of excellence and independence.”

He continued: “Owing to the international nature of our activities, there is a demand for our presence in the region’s most dynamic financial market as a guarantee of high added value for our clients.

“We are looking to become a prominent player in the Middle East, notably by promoting our global range of financial services and open-architecture platform.”

Mirabaud (Middle East) Limited will be managed by Gilles Rollet, who comes to the bank with nearly 20 years of international banking experience.

Rollet, chief executive officer of Mirabaud (Middle East) Limited, said:

“Clients in the Middle East will, for the first time, have access to a level of transparency, flexibility and performance that was previously available only to investors linked to a family office or an independent asset manager operating in Switzerland.

From its new office at the DIFC, Mirabaud is now making this expertise available in the UAE and across the wider region.”

Rollet began his career in investment banking with Goldman Sachs in New York, then joined ABN AMRO.

Immediately prior to joining Mirabaud, Rollet was head of ABN AMRO’s Dubai-based private bank, serving the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

Under his leadership, the new regional office of Mirabaud will work to emphasise to its customers the quality<