Swiss Banks’ Net Income Hits Record CHF73.8 Billion as Assets Top CHF10 Trillion

Swiss banks generated record aggregate net income of CHF73.8 billion in 2025, up 5.8% from the prior year, as stronger commission and services business outweighed pressure on interest margins. Assets under management then crossed CHF10 trillion for the first time during the first five months of 2026, reaching CHF10.1195 trillion.

The figures come from the Swiss Bankers Association’s Banking Barometer 2026, released August 31 and based largely on Swiss National Bank data. The CHF73.8 billion figure is aggregate net income across banking activities, not bottom-line profit. Annual profit for the sector rose 16.3% to CHF20.6 billion in 2025, helped by a stronger operating result and slightly lower operating expenses.

The record also shows how the earnings mix of Swiss banking is changing. Customer activity in securities and investment business contributed more to growth, while the low-rate environment continued to compress the economics of traditional lending and deposit-taking for many institutions.

Commission income offsets pressure on interest margins

Commission business and services produced CHF21.8 billion in 2025, a 6.5% increase and the largest share of aggregate net income at 32.3%. The other result from ordinary activities rose 26.6% to CHF14.1 billion, helped by higher income from participations at big and foreign banks. Those gains more than offset a 1.5% decline in trading activities and a 0.8% fall in the result from interest operations.

The modest change in the interest result hides much larger moves underneath. Interest income fell by CHF20.9 billion, or 24.1%, as rates declined, while interest expense dropped by CHF20.8 billion, or 31.6%. Lower funding costs therefore absorbed much of the pressure from weaker interest income. The SBA said the effect was uneven across the industry, with domestically oriented banks still facing tighter margins.

Big banks were a major contributor to the overall increase. Their net income rose CHF3.3 billion, or 11.5%, and their share of the sector total increased 2.2 percentage points to 43.3%, the first year-on-year increase in that share since 2020. Foreign banks increased aggregate net income 4.5%, while stock exchange banks recorded a 3.5% rise.

Bottom-line profit moved more sharply than aggregate net income. Sector annual profit reached CHF20.6 billion, up 16.3%. The report says higher operating income and slightly lower operating expenses outweighed a steep decline in extraordinary income, which returned closer to its long-term average after unusually large effects associated with the Credit Suisse takeover period.

Assets under management cross CHF10 trillion

Wealth management supplied the other headline record. Assets under management at banks in Switzerland rose 4.8% in 2025 to CHF9.7291 trillion, surpassing the previous high. Assets belonging to customers resident in Switzerland increased by CHF203.4 billion, while assets of foreign-domiciled customers rose by CHF241.7 billion.

Securities holdings accounted for most of the increase. They grew 7.3% in 2025 to CHF8.5857 trillion and represented about 88% of total assets under management. The Swiss Market Index gained 14.1% during the year, and equity holdings in bank custody accounts increased 11.1% to CHF3.3634 trillion. Holdings in collective investment schemes rose 7.2%, while bonds slipped 0.8%.

The momentum continued into 2026. In the first five months of the year, total assets under management increased another 4.0% to CHF10.1195 trillion. Domestic and foreign-domiciled customers each recorded a 4.0% rise. Securities holdings climbed 4.7% to CHF8.9646 trillion, while fiduciary liabilities increased 7.1% to CHF227.9 billion.

Because securities make up the great majority of managed assets, the CHF10 trillion milestone is not a measure of net new client money alone. Market valuation has a large effect on the total, and the SBA explicitly attributes much of the increase to higher securities holdings. That distinction matters when judging whether wealth growth came from fresh inflows, investment performance or a combination of the two.

Switzerland also remained one of the leading centres for cross-border private wealth management in 2025. The report puts cross-border private-client assets at CHF2.9457 trillion, up 7.6% on a currency-adjusted basis. Foreign-domiciled customers accounted for 45.9% of total assets under management, down from 49.3% in 2015, although their assets increased CHF1.2284 trillion in absolute terms over that decade.

Zero rates reshape deposits and the banking balance sheet

The income figures were achieved in an unusually low-rate setting. The Swiss National Bank left its policy rate at 0% in June, maintaining the level in place since mid-2025. Lower rates reduce financing costs across the economy, but they also narrow the spread banks can earn between loans, investments and their own funding, especially in domestic mortgage and lending businesses.

Swiss banks’ aggregate balance sheet total fell 0.9% in 2025 to CHF3.1913 trillion even as managed client assets and industry income reached records. Mortgages remained the largest balance-sheet asset, accounting for 39.6% of the total. On the funding side, sight deposits rose 14.5%, while time deposits fell 23.5%, a rotation the SBA links to lower rates and the uncertain geopolitical backdrop.

Employment provided a weaker counterpoint to the financial records. Banks employed 92,002 full-time equivalents in Switzerland at the end of 2025, down 2,345, or 2.5%, from a year earlier. The decline was entirely attributable to the big-bank category, while other categories added staff. In the first half of 2026, total bank headcount fell another 2.4%, with a 1.4% decline in Switzerland and a 3.7% drop outside the country.

Banks expect further income growth in 2026

The SBA’s separate Swiss Banking Outlook points to further growth, but the figures are survey expectations rather than reported results. Among the chief economists and chief investment officers surveyed, 53% expected aggregate net income to rise in 2026 and 33% expected it to remain stable. None expected a decline.

Fee-generating business is again expected to do most of the work. Seventy-three percent of respondents forecast a higher result from commission business and services, reflecting stronger customer activity and the effect that higher market values can have on asset-based fees. Expectations for interest operations were much more restrained: 43% expected little change, 30% expected a decline and 14% expected improvement.

The outlook is not without constraints. The survey assumes below-average Swiss economic growth of 1.0% in 2026 and identifies geopolitical escalation, abrupt market corrections and a stronger Swiss franc as risks to the income forecast. Regulatory pressure is also rising after Switzerland advanced further changes to its too-big-to-fail framework this year, including measures affecting capital, governance and crisis preparedness for systemically important banks.

The next scheduled Swiss National Bank monetary policy assessment is September 24. Any shift in the zero-rate setting would feed directly into one of the main tensions in the 2026 banking outlook: strong wealth-management and fee income on one side, and persistent pressure on interest margins on the other.