In the past, rich Russians were welcome customers for Swiss banks.

According to estimates by the Swiss Bankers Association, the financial houses between Geneva and Zurich manage Russian funds of 150 to 200 billion francs.

But since Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine, these customers have been one thing above all: a risk.

The banks are working flat out to implement the sanctions imposed by the EU and subsequently adopted by Switzerland.

When combing through the list of almost 900 sanctioned Russians, they found what they were looking for: according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Bern, funds and assets totaling CHF 5.75 billion have been frozen.

The vast majority of this is likely to be due to frozen bank accounts and custody accounts.

John Knight

Correspondent for politics and economy in Switzerland.

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Nevertheless, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) is not particularly concerned.

According to Finma Director Urban Angehrn, the war in Ukraine entails a variety of risks that are accentuated for individual institutions.

However, it does not represent a widespread threat to the Swiss financial market, said Angehrn at the authority's annual press conference.

The former insurance manager has been at the helm of Finma since the beginning of November.

His predecessor Mark Branson had moved to Germany to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin).

Angehrn put the investment volume of the Russians into perspective.

This only accounts for a low single-digit percentage of all client assets managed by Swiss banks.

Loan transactions with Russian customers are also small compared to the capitalization and size of Swiss banks' balance sheets.

However, Angehrn qualified this sweeping statement by pointing out that individual institutes are definitely more exposed.

He included those banks that specialize in financing commodity trading transactions.

Switzerland is the largest hub for trading in Russian commodities.

The Finma boss replied to the allegation from the ranks of the Ukrainian government that the sanctions in Switzerland were being circumvented: “A bank that guarantees flawless business activity must comply with the sanctions.

We have found that the banks take this issue very seriously.” Dealing with sanctions is by no means new for the institutions, but the scope and complexity have increased significantly.

In connection with the war, increasing cyber attacks are to be expected.

The institutes therefore have to be very vigilant, Angehrn warned.

When asked if China could become the next geopolitical cluster risk, Finma Board Chair Marlene Amstad replied: "As expected,