Where tradition shapes the future

It is only a short walk from Basel's bustling Aeschenplatz to the headquarters of Dreyfus Banquiers. Behind the understated façade lie rooms where the bank's history is present everywhere: heavy wooden furniture, historic family portraits and artworks from the owning family's collection all point to more than 200 years of history. Now the bank is opening its doors for a conversation, offering a glimpse behind the scenes. It is a notable step, given that the Basel-based bank is known above all for its discretion – it has even been called the "quiet wonder bank."

And that reputation is well earned: with 23.9 billion CHF in assets under management, a balance sheet total of 2.5 billion CHF and an annual profit of 40 million CHF, Dreyfus ranks among Switzerland's more significant private banks. At the same time, the institution shows exceptionally strong capitalisation and high efficiency, with a core capital ratio (the ratio of particularly resilient equity capital to risk-weighted assets – ed.) of 38.46 percent and a cost-income ratio (the share of income spent on ongoing operations – ed.) of 64.9 percent. Beyond its Basel headquarters, Dreyfus today has offices in Zurich, Lausanne, Lugano and Delémont, as well as a representative office in Tel Aviv. Since 2023 it has also held a majority stake in Midas Wealth Management in Luxembourg, a wealth manager specialising in family-office structures with a branch in Paris.

Nicolas Wyss has held the office of CEO and led the business since April 2025. By that point he had already spent seven years at Dreyfus: he joined the bank in 2018 as Head of Trading, External Asset Managers and Offices, and has sat on the executive board since 2020. Before that, Wyss spent 26 years in senior positions at UBS. Despite his long experience at Dreyfus, he describes himself as something of a newcomer. "Here, your first work anniversary isn't celebrated until after ten years. It used to be twenty-five – and even then, people would say: you're still on probation," he says with a smile.

What sounds like a humorous aside points directly to the bank's foundation: Dreyfus thinks in the long term. Wyss traces this trait to the bank's structure, since ownership still rests with the Dreyfus-Bernheim family today. Representatives of the sixth and seventh generations now carry responsibility for the house. Just how unusual such an orderly transition is becomes clear from PwC Switzerland's 2025 succession study, "What I've always wanted to tell you": for half of the 132 successors from Swiss family businesses surveyed, the handover process began without a clear structure or overarching plan. At Dreyfus, by contrast, changes in leadership and generation are prepared over years. "It's about working with the owners to safeguard our long-term orientation and to keep driving forward the gradual evolution the bank has been undergoing for so long," says Wyss.

This long-term orientation is also evident in client care. So that relationships and knowledge never depend on a single person, two relationship managers are generally responsible for each client relationship. "If a wealthy or very wealthy private client has to tell their whole life story again every time their relationship manager changes, at some point they simply lose patience," says Wyss. Continuity among staff thus becomes a differentiating factor in its own right.

Wyss attributes the fact that many employees stay with the bank for years or even decades to a working environment shaped less by internal competition than by shared responsibility. "Of course, there is performance pressure here too. But the way we deal with each other is open and respectful," he says, adding: "We have to move forward together and meet our clients' needs. What counts here isn't the individual, but the collective."

Private banking is undergoing a profound transformation: wealth is being passed on to children and grandchildren on a scale never seen before, while new providers, technologies and asset classes are reshaping client expectations. According to the consultancy Capgemini, some 83.5 trillion US dollars are set to be transferred worldwide by 2048 to Generations X (born between 1965 and 1980), Y (1980 to 1995) and Z (1995 to 2010). For established banks, this transfer carries considerable risk: according to the Capgemini World Wealth Report 2025, 81 percent of heirs plan to switch wealth managers within one to two years of receiving their inheritance.

In Switzerland too, generational change is seen as one of the central challenges facing the wealth management industry. In a global survey conducted by PwC among more than 500 advisors to wealthy clients, cross-generational wealth transfer was actually ranked as a bigger concern than regulatory pressure or technological transformation. The next generation of clients does not simply expect a digital version of traditional private banking, but seamlessly available, more personalised offerings and access to both traditional and alternative forms of investment.

Just how different generational investment preferences already are is shown by an EY study: 48 percent of millennials surveyed hold digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, compared with 26 percent of baby boomers. It is therefore not enough for private banks simply to pass wealth on from one generation to the next – they must also adapt their products, communication channels and advisory services to changing expectations.

On top of this, wealthy clients are increasingly spreading their assets across several institutions. According to Capgemini, only 19 percent worked exclusively with a single provider in 2025 – down from 39 percent in 2019. This increases the pressure on private banks not only to win clients, but to offer them recognisable, lasting value.

For Dreyfus Banquiers, this creates a dual challenge. The bank must become more digital and technologically connected without giving up the personal closeness on which its business model rests. At the same time, it must build ties to the next generation of clients early on. Many of today's wealth holders are over 75, Wyss explains, and their children are already middle-aged themselves. "For the first time, we are now more frequently seeing wealth skip a generation, or parts of it pass directly to the grandchildren," he says.

Clients in their thirties are therefore coming more sharply into focus. For private banks, this is genuinely delicate territory: according to Capgemini, 46 percent of wealthy members of the next generation cite the lack of digital channels as a reason for leaving their parents' bank, while 33 percent say they miss access to alternative investments.

Wyss, however, warns against treating the younger generation as a homogeneous group. "I know very young heirs who carry on the successful approaches of previous generations, just in a somewhat more modern form. Others deliberately want to strike out in new directions and take a stronger interest in digital assets or cryptocurrencies."

In response, the bank is opening itself to new asset classes and will in future also introduce crypto under the leadership of Frank Häusler, who has headed the area as CIO since July of this year, succeeding Dr. Daniel Witschi, who shaped the bank's investment philosophy for many years. Häusler brings experience from institutional asset management, family offices and private banking. "My goal is to consistently continue the path we've taken so far, while staying open to new ideas and developments," says Häusler.

In client service too, the bank tries to combine continuity with renewal: an experienced advisor and a younger one look after a client family together. Generational change thus plays out on both sides of the advisory table – younger employees bring an intuitive feel for technology and fresh ideas, while experienced colleagues contribute knowledge of markets, clients and the house's culture.

Technological modernisation forms the second element of this strategy. In recent years, digital offerings have been expanded and internal processes modernised. For Wyss, however, technology remains a means to an end. "If people are at the centre of our business model, then technology has to help us become more efficient and better at what we do – and to strengthen personal contact with clients."

Client data is treated with particular care. "Client data is a valuable asset for us," Wyss emphasises. The use of digital tools is meant to be correspondingly well controlled. The same attitude shapes the bank's IT strategy: Dreyfus intends to continue operating its own infrastructure and to integrate standard components only where they offer clear added value. "We will continue to go our own way and to nurture, maintain and protect our own systems."

Yet despite all this modernisation, certain principles remain non-negotiable for Wyss: "Our long-term orientation toward our clients and our employees will endure," he says, adding: "At the same time, we have to keep moving forward on the path of modernisation and innovation. In doing so, the bank's core culture and character will not fundamentally change, but will keep evolving."