CBH Bank

CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique SA (also, CBH Bank) was created in 1975 as a brokerage company known as stock and commodities services. In 1991, it obtained full banking license in Switzerland. The group currently employs approximately 260 employees. The current general manager is Philippe Cordonier. The bank is located in Geneva in the Canton of Geneva in Switzerland, and specialized in private banking and asset management.

CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique SA
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1975 (1975)
FounderJoseph Benhamou from 2004 (from 2004)
HeadquartersBoulevard Emile-Jaques-Dalcroze 7, Geneva, Switzerland
Area served
Global
Key people
Philippe Cordonier (General manager), Simon Benhamou (Deputy General Manager)
Products
RevenueCHF 105.2 million (2019)
CHF 30.7 million (2019)
CHF 19.4 million (2019)
Total assetsCHF 10 billion (2019)
Total equityCHF 232.3 million (2019)
Number of employees
  • approx. 260 (As of 2020)
Websitehttp://www.cbhbank.com/

The bank is owned by Benhamou family and keeps a special focus on developing banking relationships with UHNW clientele, mainly located in LATAM,[1][2] Israel,[3][4][5] Asia,[6] Russia and Venezuela.[7]

The family-owned CBH is one of Switzerland's smaller banks but has seen its assets under management more than quadruple, to $11.4 billion,[8] since 2009 from $2 billion.[9] Assets from clients located in Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for 19% of its business last year, according to financial records provided by the bank. - WSJ [10]

History
  • 1975 – Creation of Stock and Commodity Services, a brokerage company, in Geneva
  • 1991 – Swiss Banking license
  • 1993 – Creation of 1618 SICAV family of Funds in Luxembourg
  • 1993 – Opening of a representative office in St. Moritz
  • 1995 – Opening of a fully licensed bank in Nassau, Bahamas
  • 2002 – Acquisition of PG Partner Bank AG and creation of a branch in Zürich
  • 2010 – Creation of a representative office in Tel Aviv, Israel
  • 2012 – Opening of a subsidiary in London, United Kingdom and obtaining of an FSA regulated Investment management license
  • 2014 – Acquisition of a major part of the Banque Privée Espirito Santo's Private Banking clientele[1][2]
  • 2016 – Acquisition of TTG (HK) Limited, an independent wealth management company established in Hong Kong[6]
  • 2017 – Acquisition of the Private Banking activities of FIBI Bank – Switzerland (First International Bank of Israel) based in Zürich[3][11]
  • 2018 - Acquisition of the Eastern European banking clientele of Schroeder & Co Bank AG part of Schroders Group
  • 2020 – Acquisition of minority stake of 30% of FlowBank, an entirely digital bank based in Geneva

CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique SA is the Group's umbrella company. The Bank is a company whose operations encompass all transactions that fall within the remit of an asset management bank with the status of securities trader. The bank has a branch in Zurich as well as representative offices in St. Moritz and Israel, and also operates via several subsidiaries based in the Bahamas, England, Hong Kong and Brasil. Together these entities form the corporate group CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique.

Controversies and media

Investigations show that the CBH Bank "multiplied eightfold since 2007" as Venezuela customers made millions doing business with the regime and used the financial institution to hide the money.[12] A Swiss bank keeps cropping up in Venezuela corruption cases.[13] CBH: the Swiss bank that held millions of dollars stolen by Chavismo. A bank or "a laundering machine": The CBH has become a monetary haven for dozens of Venezuelans involved in million-dollar corruption cases.[14] U.S. prosecutors contend that CBH banker Beaumont pocketed $22 million by charging a 0.75% fee for all incoming and outgoing wires routed through CBH to the shell companies he helped set up. - Los Angeles Times.[15] Mark Pieth, a money-laundering expert at the University of Basel, Switzerland, said that CBH could lose its license. Pieth said the actions undertaken by CBH appear similar to those by other Swiss banks that have recently been penalized for failing to combat corruption involving Venezuelan clients. - Miami Herald.[16] The family-owned CBH is one of Switzerland's smaller banks but has seen its assets more than double, to 10.5 billion Swiss francs ($11.4 billion), since 2013 at a time its business in Venezuela was booming. - Star Tribune.[17] Huge fortunes accumulated in CBH accounts that belonged to officials and businessmen linked to the Chávez government, including the Derwick Associates.[18]

  • Russian Laundromat: Alexey Krapivin

Alexei Krapivin is the son of former partner and adviser to the former president of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin Andrei Krapivin, who unexpectedly died under mysterious circumstances in Switzerland in 2015. Aleksey Krapivin runs a business empire built with state contracts that control several hundred million rubles in government funds spent on railroads in Russia. Redstone Financial Ltd. from Belize and Telford Trading S.A. from Panama both belong to the reclusive Russian businessman Alexey Krapivin,[19] according to information in the Panama Papers. OCCRP has found that these two offshore companies received US$277 million in Laundromat funds in accounts at the Swiss bank CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique SA in Geneva between 2011 and 2014.[20]

References
  1. "Portugal's Espirito Santo Family Sells Swiss Bank Assets". 23 July 2014 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  2. "Espirito Santo vend la majeure partie de sa banque privée basée en Suisse".
  3. "Une banque genevoise rachète une banque israélienne à Zurich".
  4. "Geneva and French-speaking Switzerland campaign launched". www.kh-uia.org.il.
  5. "KH Geneva Chairman presents the children of Netivot with a brand-new educational playground". www.kh-uia.org.il.
  6. "Asian Wealth Management and Asian Private Banking - TTG rebrands to CBH Asia". www.hubbis.com.
  7. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-10-15/swiss-bank-cbh-keeps-cropping-up-in-venezuelan-corruption-cases
  8. https://www.cbhbank.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-cbh-2019-annual-report.multi_.WEB_optimised.pdf
  9. https://docplayer.fr/3304376-Rapport-annuel-annual-report.html
  10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/correction-venezuela-gold-ingots-story/2020/09/09/8a494482-f2b8-11ea-8025-5d3489768ac8_story.html
  11. "CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique rachète FIBI Bank | Agefi.com".
  12. "CBH: The Swiss Bank That Safeguarded Millions of Dollars Stolen by Chavismo". 16 October 2019.
  13. "A Swiss Bank Keeps Cropping Up in Venezuelan Corruption Cases". 15 October 2019 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  14. "Hugo Chávez's Former Nurse Hid 9.5 Million USD in Secret Account". 6 August 2020.
  15. "How 250 gold bars allegedly wound up in the vault of Hugo Chávez's former nurse". Los Angeles Times. 4 August 2020.
  16. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article244688747.html
  17. "Gold in secret vault is traced to Hugo Chávez's former nurse". Star Tribune.
  18. OCCRP, El Pitazo and. "Plunging Venezuela into the Dark". OCCRP.
  19. ""Laundromat": Geldwäsche: Die Schweiz als Drehscheibe". Beobachter.
  20. Anin, Roman. "The Russian Laundromat Superusers Revealed". OCCRP.
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