Lombard Odier to cut a third of its Gibraltar workforce

Swiss private bank Lombard Odier has announced 11 redundancies in its Gibraltar office, in a cost-cutting move it insists is unrelated to Brexit.
The cuts affect a third of the bank’s 33-strong Gibraltar staff, who were informed of the developments at a meeting this morning.
Lombard Odier has been present in Gibraltar since 1987 and its local managing director, Peter Caetano, said the bank remained “fully committed” to the Rock and would capitalise on the growth potential of Gibraltar’s financial centre.
The bank will concentrate its activities in Gibraltar on asset management, mainly for local and UK clients, and will maintain the commercial and support functions directly linked to strengthening this business segment.
“We will continue to do business out of Gibraltar,” Mr Caetano said.
Marc Lopez, a partner of Lombard Odier, said the decision to reduce the local workforce was related to wider developments in the global private banking sector.
“This decision has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit, hard or soft,” he told the Chronicle.
The Gibraltar Government, which has been briefed on the bank’s decision, said it regretted the redundancies announced this morning.
But it also welcomed the strong commitment made by Lombard Odier to its continued operations in Gibraltar.
“The increasingly competitive global market requires banks and other firms to mitigate their costs, as we have seen in this and other parts of the private sector,” said Albert Isola, the Minister for Finance Services and Gaming.
“The bank has confirmed that the news is totally unrelated to Brexit.”
“The Gibraltar Government met today with the chairman and executive director of the bank and offered our support in working with the bank and its affected employees to assist them in finding alternative employment in the private sector at the earliest opportunity.”