It is truly a tragedy when one considers the performance of the Swiss bank Julius Bär. There was the huge loss from its involvement with the bankrupt real estate developer René Benko – no less than 606 million Swiss francs. This was followed by a further 130 million Swiss francs in value adjustments this year, probably due to an unsuccessful real estate project in Hanover.

All this and perhaps more is the result of a business policy that focused on growth outside Julius Bär's traditional business, in which it enjoyed a strong reputation: asset management. The phenomenon is not new. Some mostly smaller banks in Germany have also had to learn the hard way that some concrete gold is just fool's gold.

The strategy, at least for smaller and medium-sized institutions, can only be: back to the roots. Grow (again) in the traditional business, win customers and their assets. To do this, customer advisors must have expertise and time. Expertise is likely to be available at Julius Bär. When it comes to time for customers, however, the situation is different. This seems to be increasingly lacking, as administrative tasks are apparently taking up more and more capacity. Advisors need to be freed from this. Automation and artificial intelligence can help here, and provide decisive advantages in customer service. A good dose of Swissness can then be the icing on the cake, helping to retain existing customers with their extensive assets, and at the same time attract new customers from all over the world.

The new management under CEO Stefan Bollinger, a former Goldman Sachs manager, and Chairman Noel Quinn, former head of the major British bank HSBC, seems to have recognised the signs of the times. If the announcements made at the analysts' conference on 3 June are consistently implemented, Julius Bär can return to the path of success.