Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Julius Baer 2025 full year results presentation for media. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Stefan Bollinger, CEO. Please go ahead, sir. Good morning. We appreciate you taking the time today to join me and our CFO, Evie Kostakis, who is sitting right next to me. As many of you have already reviewed our press release, and probably also dialed into our analyst and investor presentation, I'll only briefly reiterate the key points before we dive into Q&A. We delivered a strong performance, and this is a testament to the resilience of our franchise, the continued trust of our clients, and the commitment of our people. Assets under management are at the record level of CHF 521 billion. This further solidifies our position as the largest independent wealth manager internationally. We delivered solid net new money of CHF 14.4 billion, despite de-risking, with positive contributions across all our regions and client segments. On an underlying basis, operating income increased by 6%, while expenses were up just 1%, leading to a 17% increase in pre-tax profit. Our underlying cost-income ratio has improved by a full three percentage points to 67.6%. This resulted in positive operating leverage for the first time since 2021. Our balance sheet remains strong and liquid. Liquidity is high. Capital generation remains very strong, with a CET1 ratio of 17.4%. In addition to delivering strong underlying performance, 2025 was also an important transition year for us, as we decisively addressed legacy issues and strengthened our foundations, and started to execute on our strategy. Overall, I'm very pleased with the positive momentum created throughout the organization. We are now in a strong position as we enter our 2026-2028 strategic cycle, and are on track to achieve our medium-term targets. Evie and I are happy to take your questions. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered a queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questions on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Our first question comes from Holger Zschäpitz from Handelszeitung. Please go ahead. Everyone, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you well. Hello? Okay, excellent. Three question, if I may. The first one, the exit of Mr. Campbell-Breeden from the board was anticipated. Is that part of the FINMA deal to renew the key personnel? Question one. Question two: Can you elaborate a little bit about the, loss of client advisors, which goes beyond, the reduction due to the sale in Brazil? Is that a consequence of the new remuneration model that you introduced that year? And the last one, if I may, would you qualify 2026 as the first normal year without noise from, I don't know, credit, corrections, et cetera, PP, so more without, yeah, a one-time factor, so we can see the real operational strength of the bank? Just for clarifying that. Thank you. Thank you so much. So first, on our changes on the board, as you know, Richard Campbell-Breeden was on the board for eight years. He has been instrumental managing us through this difficult transition period. He recruited both the new CEO and Chairman, and we're very grateful for what he has done for us. And we are very pleased to add Urban Angehrn, who is one of the most respected financial services expert in Switzerland, and also we have Jürg Hunziker, as a vice chair, so I feel this is a very positive development for the board. In terms of loss of client advisors, as we said before in the analyst call, the part from the divestment of Brazil, it was stringent low performance management and other factors, but it was not due to a change in a compensation formula. And yes, 2026 will be a normal year for us. Okay, but you didn't say anything about Mr. Breeden, and is there any relation between Mr. Breeden, the exit, and the FINMA inquiry that's still going on? That is, that isn't clear. ... No, as I said, he had eight years on the board, which is a very long time. It was a very intense time, and I completely understand that after he found a new chairman and a new CEO, that he's now not standing for re-election. There's no relation? Nope. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press Star followed by one. The next question comes from Notker Blechner from Finanz und Wirtschaft. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning. Could you, could you tell us where was the biggest growth in your key regions? Was it Asia or was it the Middle East region? And could you explain, too, why the assets under management stagnated at $521 billion in the last two months, compared to, what, $520 billion at the end of October? And third question: Could you give us a precise forecast for 2026? Could there be a double-digit growth of the adjusted net profit? And last question: Are you disappointed by the stock market reaction today? Maybe I start with the first, and then hand over to Evi. Indeed, Asia was our strongest market in terms of net new money growth last year, but we also had contribution from all the other key regions, namely in Western Europe, UK and Ireland, as well as Germany, and in the Middle East, the UAE were particularly strong contributors. On the assets under management, I mean, CHF 521 billion is the highest number of assets under management we have ever recorded, so we're quite happy with that. With respect to profit forecast for 2026, you will appreciate we don't give profit forecast for the year. On the share price performance, you know, I haven't even looked. We are having a very long-term view, and we wanna build the best Julius Baer for the future. Thank you. For any further question, please press Star followed by one. The next question comes from Thomas Poole from AWP. Please go ahead. Yes, hello. I just wanted to ask for your... Again, for your IT project, can you elaborate or tell a little bit why you start now, the new IT in Switzerland and what the cost implications are? And maybe the second thing, I think you told already often about the FINMA investigation, but do you have some timeline that it will be concluded in the first half year of this of 2026, or have you any indication to that? Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. Actually, we have started our IT infrastructure project in Switzerland a year ago. As you may recall, we hired Rolf Olmesdahl to be in charge of that, and this is gonna be a multi-year project. All the costs are factored into our cost-income ratio guidance that we gave to the market at our strategy update back in June, with the cost-income ratio target below 67 by 2028. FINMA, look, as we said on the call before, the timing is not in... It's not up to us. This is up to FINMA, and they will come to their conclusion on the enforcement whenever they think it's the right time. I would just reiterate again that we have a very positive relationship, and we work very well with them to address all our legacy issues, and I think we have done a lot. As we highlight before, we have a very simple business model now, focusing on our core wealth management business. We have a new risk appetite statement, a new risk organization, a new compensation framework, and many other things in place. So we feel very good about progress, and we feel good about our dialogue with FINMA, which is proactive and transparent at all times. Yes, thank you. The next question comes on Daniel Zulauf from Börsen-Zeitung. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning. I have also two questions relating to FINMA. The first one is, I see your dividend. Your dividend is unchanged, although the result is quite solid. It is a similar situation to last year. I was wondering, to which extent, if FINMA had a word with you on the dividend for 2025 and maybe also the year before? And I'm also curious to know whether there has been some operational impositions by FINMA. For example, an operational add to the risk-weighted assets, in relation to the situation with your failed credit transactions in the years before. Thank you. Good morning, Daniel. Thanks a lot for the questions. So on the dividend at CHF 260 per share, that is fully in line with our dividend policy, which is progressive in nature. We pay the higher of 50% of adjusted profits or last year's dividend per share. That's why the 260, which actually corresponds to a payout ratio of above 60%, and of course, all capital distributions are discussed with our regulator. How about the risk-weighted assets? No, there's been nothing on risk-weighted assets. No impositions from FINMA relating to this ongoing procedure? Look, as Stefan mentioned, we're still awaiting conclusion from our regulator in terms of the regulatory action. Okay. You don't want to answer the question on potential impositions. I think we answered the question. Well, I asked you, no impositions at all, or are there any which I haven't mentioned explicitly? As we've said a few times, you know, the regulatory action is still yet to come, and I don't want to speculate on what form that regulatory action might take. It's. It wouldn't be appropriate. So I think that's as good as we can answer that question right now. Okay. Well, sometimes regulatory action take place before the, before the decision, the regulatory decision, as a form of, prevention or something. But this seems... Well, that was my question, actually. Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star followed by one. We have a follow-up question from Notker Blechner from Finanz und Wirtschaft. Please go ahead. Hi. Could you specify if in Germany you were still profitable despite the credit losses you had there in 2025? In general, we don't comment on individual legal entity profitability. These are matters of public record. You can go and look at the financial statements, they're published, but our German business is profitable. Mm-hmm. We have a follow-up question from Holger Zschäpitz from Handelszeitung. Please go ahead. Yes, as we have the CEO and the CFO on the line, we should use that. I would have two follow-up question, if I may. The first one is about the Swiss market. Can you elaborate a little bit about how is going your Swiss onshore business, which was historically a little bit weak at Baer? Is there now a little bit... You didn't mention Swiss market as the growth driver, so, what, what's there going on? First question, and second, about the relationship managers, where you have lost some. Could you elaborate a little bit how many you would like to have at the end of this year? And, will you recruit from external or will you promote from internal? What's there, the plan, and what could we pencil in as the objective number of relationship manager you would like to have, in during that year? Thank you. Thank you, Holger. So on the Swiss market, this is a huge focus, as hopefully we have managed to get across, at the analyst presentation a little while ago. Maybe just to reiterate a few things, obviously, Switzerland is our home market. Our roots date back to over 135 years. We're extremely committed about being a Swiss bank and being headquartered in Switzerland. And we're not confused that this is a massive strength, particularly in times of uncertainties. Switzerland stands for stability and safety, and so this is a big benefit for all the Swiss wealth manager that we currently have. Now, specifically to our Swiss domestic clients, we announced a new leadership at the start of the beginning of the year, Alain Krüger and Marc Blunier, and they are developing with us a growth plan to focus specifically on our domestic clients, and I feel that there's a lot of untapped potential. ... And, Holger, on your second question with respect to relationship managers, as we set out in the June third strategy update last year, our plan is to continue hiring upwards of 150+ relationship managers on an annual basis in the next three years. We are a very attractive destination for talented relationship managers. And therefore, you know, we have a strong belief that we'll be able to deliver on that. And as is the case with all wealth managers, there is some natural attrition related to retirements and other things that happens on a yearly basis. Net, we expect growth of relationship managers in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Mm-hmm. And if I may ask, the untapped potential in Switzerland, you are going more, of course, on the ultra and, I mean, high net worth individuals. What are you especially looking at now? Because the Swiss market, our domestic market, is quite competitive, with lots of banks competing here, with good brands, Pictet, you name it. Where do you see especially the sweet spot for Baer? According to the latest brand survey, we are the strongest brand in wealth management, including in Switzerland. So we have definitely all the ingredients. We just need to make use of our capabilities and expertise we have on the ground. As you know, we have all our key people here in the region. We have a very strong local network of local offices. I think historically, we haven't had as much visibility as we probably could have had, and with the new leadership, we're very positive about making a change on that. And, you know, to your question around client segments, we are covering both high net worth and ultra high net worth clients in Switzerland, and I think we have a great value proposition for both, given our scale and independence. We have a very interesting value proposition versus smaller wealth managers. At the same time, we have extremely compelling value proposition versus the universal banks, and we just have to make good use of that for the benefit of our clients. Okay, thank you. The last question comes from Daniel Zulauf from Börsen-Zeitung. Please go ahead. Yes, thank you. Briefly, two things, two more things. The first one, Credit Suisse is now going to lay off quite a number of people in Switzerland. We are talking about a figure somewhere below 3,000. How does this translate into your situation? I mean, on the one hand, we were talking about client advisors that you are potentially looking for. On the other hand, you have just done a restructuring process yourself. I guess this, the market, the labor market situation for bankers in Switzerland is a bit more shaky than it used to be in the past. Maybe you can elaborate a little bit on how this influences the atmosphere at your bank. And the second question is about Hong Kong. I was just wondering how you judge the situation there in the context of this geopolitical chaos that we are facing at the moment. Thank you. Thanks, Daniel. On your first question, I think this is a nice segue from the previous discussion about our focus on Switzerland. Maybe just to give you one number, despite having a cost program successfully completed last year, our headcount in Switzerland is pretty much unchanged, less than a 1% change from 2024. So, this makes the point that we continue to invest in talent, and we continue to see opportunities, and if more talent becomes available, of course, that's an opportunity for us to add more, not just relationship manager, but across the board, given a lot of our key operations are in Switzerland. And question on Hong Kong, as I said, in the call earlier on, we see a lot of opportunities in Hong Kong, given the strength of the capital market, in Hong Kong, more than 100 IPOs last year. There is 300 plus in the pipeline. There's a lot of wealth creation still happening. And so while there's some geopolitics that maybe change things in the short term, we are extremely positive on the longer term, and again, this, the fact we're a Swiss bank with Swiss roots, and stand for safety and stability, of course, plays to our strengths in these times of uncertainties. Mentioned on the Swiss stuff. Sorry, Daniel? I didn't understand the number you mentioned on the Swiss stuff. I'll give it to you again. Sorry. The, what I said is that if you look at our full-time employees in Switzerland, and the change from 2024 to 2025, it is pretty much unchanged. It's less than 1% different from 2024 to 2025. And my point is that, while we had a cost program, and in Switzerland, we had a consultation, at the same time, we heavily invested in Switzerland, and therefore, our level of employment is pretty much unchanged. You didn't mention a number for Swiss employees. Don't single out employees by jurisdictions, but you can think about around 4,000 out of our 7,500 people being based here. Thank you. We have a follow-up question from... I'm sorry. We have a follow-up question from Notker Blechner from Finanz und Wirtschaft. Please go ahead. Yes. Last week, the Deutsche Bank CEO said that clients abroad, especially in Asia, look for an alternative to U.S. banks because of the geopolitical changes. Do you see that trend, too, and are European banks like Deutsche Bank becoming more and more a competitor for you? Thank you. I think there is definitely some questions in clients' minds around their exposure to the U.S., given what's happening in geopolitics. If you look at asset allocation of clients and the performance of U.S. assets, which has been exceptionally strong and stronger than most other markets, that, of course, has led to clients having been over-indexed to the U.S. dollar and to U.S. assets. And, of course, as you know, market share in many parts of financial markets have accrued to U.S. firms. And so if you're a client that does corporate business, investment banking business, and other business with U.S. firms, maybe you think about where you wanna put your money. I think, again, we have an amazing opportunity here as a Swiss bank, and I'm sure Deutsche Bank will make the same pitch that they have a strong Swiss bank. So we're in a way making the same pitch to these clients. The reality is that these markets are growing very fast, and it's just a matter of capturing some of these opportunities. We think we're very well positioned. We have a different value proposition than universal banks because we're only doing wealth management. We have no conflict of interest. We don't have our own products, but we have the scale and the global reach to find the very best products and solutions for our clients. We have a follow-up question from Thomas Poole from AWP. Please go ahead. Yes, I just wanted to follow up the comments you made on the Swiss labor market, that, despite the cost program, I think the decline was relatively little, relatively small. Just, can you say, with the new cost program, do you expect also no considerable layoffs here in Switzerland with the new program, 2026-2028? Thanks for the question. I would expect something similar than what we've seen last year, that employment in Switzerland will remain stable as we continue to invest. As we said before, we wanna move away from having cost programs to having cost consciousness on an ongoing basis and embed the cost awareness and cost management in our day-to-day. And I keep saying to our people that we should act like if we would be the Baer family and own this company and spend the money as if it would be our own wallet. And I think this message has arrived. We are doing very well on having general expenses under control, but there's a lot more opportunities to streamline, particularly on the general expenses. So I don't think there are gonna be major changes. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session. Back over to you for any closing remarks. Thank you. Before we wrap up the call, here again, my key takeaways. We have delivered a strong underlying performance, a testament to the strengths of our franchise and overall transformation momentum. 2025 was a crucial transition year for us. We addressed legacy issues, strengthened our foundations, and mobilized the organization around the execution of our strategy. We have a plan, we have momentum, and we are on track to achieving our midterm targets. Thank you again. If you have further questions, please contact our media relations team. Have a good day. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect the lines. Goodbye.