The Geneva Financial Center carried out this Economic Survey according to the methodology used in previous years. The survey is sent to directors of banks and independent asset managers in Geneva every year in June. The results presented in the following pages reflect their analyses and perceptions.
The survey provides long-term data and is therefore a useful tool to measure changes in opinion among financial intermediaries regarding business performance and the outlook for the Geneva financial center.
The 2018–2019 Economic Survey indicates that financial institutions are confident about the future. Despite numerous regulatory constraints, the growing demands of increasingly connected clients, and political and legal uncertainty in relation to the Brexit, Geneva banks are in solid health. Several indicators are up: profits margins are positive and assets under management are growing. On the jobs front, the financial sector currently employs 35,600 people and most companies expect to hire additional staff in 2018. Banks with more than 200 employees reported the most optimistic outlook for 2018 and 2019.