The custodian bank is where wealth actually sits. It holds securities, keeps accounts, settles purchases and sales, collects income and issues statements. For family offices it is both partner and data source: what the bank reports is the basis of every statement about wealth.
Custodian and asset manager
In the Swiss independent asset manager model, the client remains the bank’s contracting party. The manager receives a management power of attorney entitling it to make investment decisions but not to withdraw assets. That separation protects the client. It also means bank and manager each perform their own due diligence and each ask for their own documents.
Several banks, one picture
Wealthy families usually spread their wealth deliberately across several banks, for risk diversification, geography or specialisation. For administration, the central task is turning several sources into one consistent overall picture: different statement formats, cut-off dates, valuation prices and names for the same security.
Data formats
Banks supply data in different forms: as PDF statements, as files for import or via electronic interfaces. Common are ISO 20022 messages such as camt.053 for account statements and SWIFT formats such as MT535 for custody holdings; some institutions offer their own interfaces or work with aggregators. The more structured the data, the less manual work, but each source needs mapping and a duplicate check.
Reconciliation
The bank’s figures are the reference but not infallible, and neither are one’s own records. A regular reconciliation between bank data and one’s own records is therefore mandatory: positions, cash, transactions, prices. Differences are ranked by severity and resolved before a report goes to the family.
What sits outside the bank
Not all wealth sits with a custodian. Real estate, direct participations, loans and art have no custodian issuing a statement. For a complete view, these non-bankable assets must flow into the same mandate with their own valuation, alongside the bank data.