Q1: Reflecting on 2025, what were your bank’s major milestones from an operational perspective, and how did you achieve them? Conversely, what were the setbacks and challenges encountered along the way, and what measures were taken to surmount them? How have those lessons shaped your 2026 strategy?

2025 was a transformative year for us. We achieved solid financial performance, with a 4% year-on-year increase in operating income and a 12% rise in net profit, reflecting the strength of our focused business model. 

A major milestone was our move to 1Roof, the new global headquarters in Geneva. The sustainable, future‑ready workplace brings all Geneva-based colleagues together, supported by enhanced infrastructure and integrated technology. This has improved collaboration and innovation, enabling more coordinated and efficient decision-making. 

We also made broader progress in strengthening our operating platform and capabilities, including reorganising back-office teams to better support business growth, simplifying processes, enhancing automation and improving data governance. These efforts have improved scalability, resilience and consistency in client service, while reinforcing our risk and control environment. 

While these changes involved challenges, from complex system transitions to ensuring operational excellence and continuity, we navigated them successfully thanks to strong support from our managing partners and regional leadership, and close collaboration across the COO office. 

2025 also marked an important leadership transition with the appointment of Omar Shokur as regional head of private clients, Asia. We are sharpening our market priorities, strengthening our operating model and investing in talent to deepen regional capabilities for long‑term growth. These priorities shape our 2026 agenda, as we continue our transformation across teams and strategic infrastructure to better serve clients and deliver on our key performance metrics. 

With a CET1 ratio of 33% and Fitch reaffirming our AA- rating, we enter 2026 with a strong balance sheet and a disciplined focus on growth, operational optimisation and futureproofing our platform. 

Q2: As private banks invest in upgrading their KYC systems and scaling AI capabilities, how are you addressing the operational challenges of integrating these technologies while driving measurable KPIs in revenue growth and delivering hyper-personalised client experiences?

Private banks face challenges such as legacy system constraints, data fragmentation and increasing regulatory expectations. At Lombard Odier, technology is central to how we integrate enhanced KYC systems and scale AI while maintaining operational resilience. Because our core banking platform is built in‑house by our T&O unit of over 900 professionals, we can embed new KYC, data and AI capabilities quickly and securely, without the constraints of legacy infrastructure. 

Our multi‑year GX transformation programme supports this by modernising our wealth management platform and retiring older systems, which reduces implementation risk and ensures new technologies are interoperable from day one. This integrated architecture allows us to automate key KYC workflows, streamline onboarding, and generate real‑time risk insights. The platform also consolidates investment and sustainability‑related data, enabling bankers to identify opportunities, track commercial KPIs more precisely and deliver hyper‑personalised client experiences at scale. We have also recently upgraded GX in various areas and will continue to do so in the future. 

Additionally, our proprietary banking platform, G2, is fully integrated with our client-facing e-banking interface, My LO, ensuring seamless end-to-end interactions and a unified digital experience. 

Q3: The cost-to-income ratio is a key metric for assessing bank performance. What range do you consider optimal, and how is the bank managing the cost side—across investments, real estate, and other operating expenses—to maintain efficiency and competitiveness in the region? 

At the Group level, we kept our underlying cost base stable despite exceptional expenses from the headquarters transition. This discipline, combined with revenue momentum, allowed us to grow net profit by 12%. Closer to home in Asia, we also saw a significant improvement in our cost-income ratio. We take a disciplined, long‑term approach to cost management and focus on structural improvements that strengthen the bank sustainably. 

This is a key principle for us as we continue to remain highly selective about where we allocate resources. Investments in core infrastructure, risk management, and data quality continue to be prioritised under a rigorous governance framework to ensure every initiative delivers tangible value. 

There is no one-size-fits-all measurement for the cost-to-income ratio, but getting the right balance is critical depending on the long-term strategy and ambitions of the organisation. 

Our overall philosophy is grounded in long-term thinking: maintain a strong foundation, deploy resources where they matter most, and improve productivity in ways that enhance long‑term resilience and competitiveness, driven by our ‘rethink everything’ mindset. 

Q4: With regulatory requirements continually evolving, private banks are reassessing their compliance systems and processes. From an operational perspective, what are the biggest challenges you face in meeting these requirements, and how is the bank tackling them to maintain both efficiency and client trust? 

A key operational challenge is navigating an increasingly complex and fast-evolving regulatory landscape while maintaining the agility expected of a leading private bank. Regulatory requirements continue to evolve across jurisdictions, requiring us to stay fully compliant while remaining nimble and forward-looking in our approach. 

A core challenge lies in anticipating and adapting quickly to regulatory change. This requires strong horizon scanning, close engagement with regulators and industry bodies, and a proactive mindset. Equally important is ensuring that regulatory updates are effectively translated into practical process enhancements. This means keeping all internal stakeholders well-informed, fully trained and aligned, and continuously strengthening our controls framework to support consistent and robust execution. 

As part of Project Coral, a Group-wide, multi-year front-to-back AML transformation programme, we are strengthening our data foundations and investing in more scalable compliance capabilities. We also implemented an integrated name-screening tool and will soon launch an enhanced transaction-monitoring system with holistic functionalities. All relevant stakeholders also undergo mandatory annual training on prevailing KYC and AML red flags. We also enhanced collaboration between the operations, compliance and client-facing teams to ensure that regulatory changes are fully understood, correctly implemented and embedded into daily workflows. We also actively participate in industry events and workshops to stay connected with the wider banking community and keep abreast of evolving financial crime trends and typologies.

Ultimately, our goal is to build a compliance and operating model that is both robust and client‑centric, enabling our teams to serve clients efficiently and confidently.