Success factors

Stability and security

For many years, the LLB Group has been one of the most secure and best capitalised universal banks in the world and, with its Aa2 deposits rating from Moody’s, it belongs to the absolute top rank of financial institutes in Liechtenstein and in Switzerland (see chapter “Finance and risk management”). With its 158-year history, LLB is the longest established bank in Liechtenstein. Furthermore, with the Principality of Liechtenstein as its majority shareholder, it can rely on a solid ownership structure. Liechtenstein is one of the very few countries in the world to possess an AAA rating with a stable outlook from Standard & Poor’s. The outstanding country rating for the entire Liechtenstein financial centre is an indicator of stability and reliability.

High level of product and service quality

At the beginning of 2020, LLB Österreich migrated to the Avaloq banking software, so that all the banks in the LLB Group now operate a common core banking application. This has enabled us to make further progress in the automation of our processes and, at the same time thanks to the bundling of administrative procedures, to take advantage of synergies. In addition to the clients of LLB and Bank Linth, in future those of LLB Österreich can also take advantage of the whole range of LLB Group products and services, including Online and Mobile Banking, the innovative “LLB Invest” investment advisory and asset management solution, as well as “LLB Portfolio Analysis”, the pioneering technological portfolio information system. Moreover, we are continuing to develop our digital advisory tools. The goal here is to enhance the scope and quality of our investment advice. The first applications are to be utilised in advisory discussions starting in 2020.

Asset management and investment advisory

Irrespective of whether clients prefer to delegate the management of their assets or actively make investment decisions themselves, with “LLB Invest” and “Bank Linth Invest” private and institutional clients can find a product offering tailored to suit their requirements at LLB. In 2018, to supplement the existing “Consult” and “Expert” advisory models and the “Comfort” asset management application, we added the leaner “Basic” model. In 2019, this was also introduced at Bank Linth. Therefore, LLB is not only complying with the EU’s MiFID II directive, valid since 2018, but also with the Swiss FIDLEG regulation, which comes into force in 2020.

When using “LLB Invest”, our clients decide what scope of service they wish to receive from us. They can choose their investment strategy from the categories “Fixed Interest”, “Conservative”, “Yield”, “Balanced”, “Growth” or “Equities”. Using computer-supported continual monitoring of the portfolios, our private banking client advisers ensure the security of the investments and deliver performance in line with the selected strategy. This service has been very well received by our clients. Since the introduction of “LLB Invest” in 2016, the volume of asset management and investment advisory mandates has risen steadily (see chart below).

In addition, the LLB Group offers passive asset management mandates with various investment strategies as well as passively managed equity funds.

LLB Invest (in CHF billions)

Products for every phase of life

With our “LLB Compass” and “Bank Linth Compass” services, we support private clients and entrepreneurs at all stages of life or the business cycle to help them achieve their future financial goals. LLB and Bank Linth therefore cover all the important themes such as wealth planning, financing facilities, retirement provisioning, real estate, taxation, estate planning and succession (see chapter “Responsibilities for society and the environment”).

Fair and transparent pricing

The LLB Group foregoes retrocessions both in the provision of investment advisory and asset management services, i. e. LLB does not accept commissions from external fund vendors for the distribution of their products to the bank. We transfer 100 per cent of these payments to our clients. We employ performance-related fees with various funds, as well as with asset and discretionary management mandates, which are only payable if a positive return is achieved. Our interest-related fees are another innovative feature, which take into account the prevailing low level of interest rates. LLB’s tariff structures are simple and clear, costs are visible at a glance (see chapter “Responsibilities for society and the environment”).

Tested advisory quality

We regularly receive awards for the high level of our advisory competence. In the independent comparison test carried out for the “Fuchsbriefe” publishing house, our client advisers attained the best results of all tested banks in Germany and Liechtenstein. The top rating “Very good” is a testimony to the affinity our employees possess for the provision of excellent investment advice. We were praised in particular for the quality of our innovation and our ground-breaking digital solutions.

To ensure the quality of our advisory services, we continually invest in our products and employees. Our client advisers must complete the certification programme according to the standards of the Swiss Association for Quality (SAQ). In Austria, we have decided to introduce the European Investment Practitioner (EIP) certificate programme recognised throughout the EU. We are adding our own oral examination to this programme, thus upgrading it to comply with the LLB certificate and therefore the level of the SAQ certification.

Highly sophisticated digital services

In continually analysing and monitoring client portfolios, our client advisers and analysts are supported by the latest technology. Highly efficient programmes use sophisticated algorithms to calculate the return and assess the risk of individual financial instruments in order to enhance portfolio performance. Individual targets and restrictions are automatically considered. If the risk / return characteristics of an investment do not fulfil the client’s criteria, the software flags up an alert. Thanks to LLB’s advanced mobile and online banking applications, clients have an overview of their assets at all times.

Outstanding investment performance

The Private Banking Division is supported by the specialists of LLB Asset Management, whose investment performance in competitive comparison is outstanding. This is confirmed by the international awards, which LLB received in 2019 and in previous years (see chapter “Institutional Clients”). The investment selection process for the portfolios follows the proprietary, multi-award-winning LLB Multi-Factor Model, which we refined and optimised in 2019 (see chapter “Institutional Clients”). As active managers, our Asset Management specialists are guided by benchmarks – with the goal of exceeding them in our own numerous funds and mandates. This applies both in asset management and for investment funds. As a further means of assuring quality, we continually invest in technology and the training of our investment experts.

Focus on clients

In order to find out how satisfied our clients are with our offering and advisory services, we shall carry out a broadly based client survey in early 2020 (see chapter “Marketing and communication”).