Pictet. A story worth telling.
Journey through 220 years of corporate history as we explore eight pivotal moments, accompanied by archival images.
1805 — The origins of Pictet
On 23 July 1805, two young entrepreneurs, Jacob-Michel-François de Candolle and Jacques-Henry Mallet, signed a partnership deed in Geneva with three limited partners.
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World context
Europe under Napoleonic rule
With Geneva annexed to France between 1798 and 1813, the bank was founded in the midst of a restructuring of the financial sector following major bankruptcies caused by the French Revolution.
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At Pictet
Birth of modern private banking
Banque de Candolle Mallet & Cie was a new form of independent financial partnership in Geneva, later to be known as a “private bank”. Throughout the 19th century, the partners passed the baton from generation to generation. In doing so, they instilled some of the traits that shape the bank to this day: a certain rigour that is said to be a legacy of Calvinism, along with prudent, discreet management of affairs, and a considerable openness to the world with regard to financial investments.
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Key business activities
Long-term thinking
Like all Genevan banks at the time, the partnership started out trading goods and speculating in commodities but soon decided to focus on assisting clients in their financial and commercial business, and advising them on managing their wealth. Unlike their predecessors, they spread risk with a focus on the long term, investing in companies across Europe to limit the effect of crises on their clients’ assets.
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Partners’ legacies
A “family bank” from the outset
Though the Pictet family was not directly involved in the founding of the house De Candolle, Mallet & Cie, one of the founding partners, Jacob de Candolle, was the grandfather of Ernest Pictet, who became a partner in 1856. The term “family bank” thus takes on its full meaning since the origins of Pictet.
Key figures
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1OfficeGeneva
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5StaffTwo founders and three limited partners
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125,000Geneva poundsPictet's original capital (equivalent to CHF 30 million today)
Pictures from that time
Foundation deed: Company script signed by Jacob-Michel-François de Candolle and Jacques-Henry Mallet to found Banque De Candolle, Mallet & Cie.
Meanwhile...
Charles Pictet de Rochemont, statesman and diplomat, negotiated the expansion of Geneva at the Congress of Vienna, a prerequisite for the future canton to join the Swiss Confederation. He also drew up the declaration by which the Great Powers recognised Switzerland’s permanent neutrality in the Second Treaty of Paris (1815). His wife, Sara Pictet de Rochemont (1767-1830), taught children in Lancy, just two kilometres from today’s headquarters. A park in the new Pont Rouge development has been named in her honour.
Geneva’s very compactness and its unwavering neutrality have been of limitless advantage to the city, most notably… in business and in trading.
Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer
Sur la Treille, 1817
Collection Pictet
1841 — The first Pictet becomes a Partner
When Edouard Pictet-Prevost became a Partner at De Candolle, Turrettini & Cie, the name Pictet was added to the company name and has remained so to this day.
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World context
Industrial revolution
The new Swiss Federal Constitution was introduced in 1848 and the Swiss franc was created two years later. Across Europe, a period of scientific and technological advances led to rapid industrialisation.
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At Pictet
Investing takes a new direction
The construction of the first railway lines helped to fuel the rapid spread of the Industrial Revolution. The bank was involved, as part of various consortiums, in promoting and financing this new mode of transport and began to take an interest in shipping.
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Key activities
Diffusing risk
The bank held a broad range of securities on its clients’ behalf to ensure that risks were properly spread: sovereign bonds issued by foreign states and shares in local and foreign companies. The bonds included French and Dutch debt, a City of Paris bond, and shares issued for the Pâquis suspension bridge, one of the first of its kind in Europe. In 1821, Pictet became Swiss agents to the Paris-based life assurance company Compagnie Générale d’assurances sur la vie.
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Partners’ legacies
Alliance of private banks
In 1844, Edouard Pictet negotiated with Camilo Cavour, the future Prime Minister of unified Italy, for the financing of the Piedmont railways on behalf of the Quatuor, a consortium of four Geneva private banks. Although the venture eventually failed due to internal political reasons in Italy, the Quatuor served as a model for an alliance among private bankers, a concept that would notably flourish in the 1970s with the Private Geneva Bankers Association, of which Pictet & Cie, banquiers privés was a member.
Key figures
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1OfficeGeneva
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8StaffTwo founders, three limited partners and three employees.
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192,000CHFAverage annual profit (equivalent to CHF 10 to 20 million today)
Pictures from that time
Meanwhile...
Louis Pictet set up a bank called ‘Banque Louis Pictet’ in 1829 but it only lasted 55 years as members of this branch of the Pictet family moved into other activities.
Raoul Pictet's laboratory ― Raoul Pictet liquefies oxygen in a world first, leading to the invention of the refrigeration process.
Prudence and risk aversion steadily seeped into the Pictet DNA. There were losses, of course, but the Partners were never drawn into concentrated exposure to speculative investments to the extent that a turn in the credit cycle would leave it unable to repay its obligations.
Alexandre Calame
Cascade de la Handeck, 1839
Collection Pictet
1926 — Global instability and unrest
In the last decade of Guillaume Pictet’s leadership, Geneva underwent major industrial growth and the bank forged important links with North America. After Guillaume’s death, the bank changed its name to Pictet & Cie and relocated its offices to 6 rue Diday, just 50 metres away.
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World context
Time of crisis
The years between 1914 and 1950 were difficult for private bankers. Wars were followed by political and economic crises, causing business to slow down and profits to fall. During World War II, capital invested abroad was blocked, while contact with some of the bank’s clients was cut off.
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At Pictet
Pictet negotiates on behalf of Switzerland
Thanks to his extensive network in the US, Guillaume Pictet negotiated three loans totalling CHF 75 million on behalf of the Swiss Confederation between 1915 and 1924 in order to raise foreign currency and bolster the national budget.
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Key activities
A precursor to thematic funds
Realising that shares in electricity generation and distribution companies would be the most rewarding investments for his clients, in 1910, Guillaume founded the Société Financière pour entreprises électriques aux États-Unis (Amerosec), a closed-end investment company whose purpose was to invest in electricity stocks.
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Partners’ legacies
Profit-sharing plan
Guillaume Pictet introduced a profit-sharing scheme for employees in 1921, les parts. Charles Gautier pioneered pension funds with equal employee/employer contributions in private banks and also encouraged the building of social and cooperative housing in Geneva.
Key figures
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1OfficeGeneva
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63StaffEmployees
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300CHF millionAssets under management (1935)
Pictures from that time
Meanwhile
Lucien Pictet, an enthusiastic engineer, teamed up with entrepreneur Paul Piccard. Together they built the engine and chassis of the first Pic-Pic cars in 1905. The firm employed 7,000 workers during World War I and produced 3,000 vehicles by 1920.
Pic-Pic factory ― The Piccard and Pictet factory is the biggest employer in Geneva during World War I with around 7,000 workers.
Fearing invasion during WWII, the Partners moved clients’ gold holdings out of the vaults. Ivan Pictet remembers that his father, Michel, ‘had spent part of the war in the mountains, sitting on the bank’s valuables in a place that remains a mystery’. Or not. As one employee noted, ‘the gold stocks were transferred to the basement of a Pictet holiday house in Crans-Montana’.
Paul Camenisch
Café Commerce Suisse, 1928
Collection Pictet
1955 — Recovery
To offset the consequences of World War II, the bank began to diversify its activities, in particular by investing in real estate and commodities. From 1960 onwards, wealth management started to enjoy a revival.
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World context
Uncertain times for wealth management
Switzerland found itself in relatively good economic shape at the end of WWII, with its industrial base intact and gold and foreign exchange reserves at high levels. Free exchange of goods and services gradually re-emerged through a series of bilateral, then multilateral, trade and currency agreements. Until the 1960s, however, the banking industry was slow to recover owing to the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates and excessive demand for the Swiss franc.
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At Pictet
Exploring new activities
With most of their clients’ assets still frozen, partners Jean-Pierre Demole and Alexandre van Berchem decided to venture further into commercial activities. The bank acquired interests in a shipping company, owning three freighters and four merchant vessels, and funded an oil refinery in Antwerp. Victor Gautier, a third partner, set up two credit businesses chaired by Edouard Pictet. These alternative activities were quickly abandoned as wealth management began to flourish once more.
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Key business activities
First offices abroad
Seeking to secure clients’ assets outside a still uncertain Europe, offices were opened in the free port of Tangier (1949), in Montevideo (1951), and in Beirut (1956).
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Partners’ legacies
Financial research
Michel Pictet was instrumental in setting up Pictet’s first dedicated financial research department and chaired Sopafin, a closed-end investment fund.
Key figures
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4OfficesGeneva, Tangier (closed in 1956), Montevideo (closed in 1974), Beirut (closed within 5 months)
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140StaffEmployees
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2.5CHF billionAssets under management (1955)
Pictures from that time
Meanwhile...
In 1949, Jean Pictet led the drafting of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of victims of war. In 1952, Hélène Pictet, a leading feminist and pacifist and wife of Partner Charles Gauthier, agitated for women’s right to vote, which was eventually granted at the Geneva cantonal level in 1960.
150th anniversary of Pictet ― All employees of the bank are invited to a celebration at Albert Pictet’s house.
I was a young employee, just starting my career at Pictet. I met Edouard Pictet during an event and told him that I admired people working in industry, making something, a product which people could be proud of, unlike the work in a bank. Edouard Pictet slowly removed his pipe from his mouth and said, ‘Indeed we don’t manufacture anything, but we have something really important to offer: our trust.’ I remembered his response for the rest of my career.
Karl Ballmer
Figur, c. 1953/1957
Collection Pictet
1974 — Expanding beyond Geneva
In the second half of the 20th century, Pictet set up offices outside Europe in response to the start of the globalisation of the financial markets. Pictet embarks on its first ventures into institutional asset management.
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World context
Cold War and oil crisis
Tensions in Europe were rising. In 1968, the Western worldwatched on powerlessly as Soviet troops marched into Czechoslovakiato quash the Prague Spring. The global economy wasdeeply affected by the first oil crisis, resulting in spiraling energyprices, widespread inflation and soaring unemployment.
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At Pictet
Pictet’s presence in the Americas
At the height of the Cold War, Pictet began looking for a strategic location on the American continent that would provide protection for its clients’ assets in the event of a major crisis in Europe. In 1974, Montreal was chosen for the bank’s first office on the North American continent. An office was then opened in The Bahamas in 1978.
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Key business activities
First steps in the institutional business
In 1967, the Fondation d’Investissement pour la Prévoyance en faveur du Personnel (FIPPER) marked the start of the bank’s institutional asset management activities. Internationally, Pictet set up a joint venture with Mellon Bank to manage US institutional funds. This eventually led to the opening of the London office in 1980 and the Tokyo office in 1981.
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Partners’ legacies
Leadership and computerisation
During this period, the bank was led by partners with particularly strong leadership skills. They included Jean-Pierre Demole, who unified the management of the bank by initiating regular Salon meetings of the partners; Edouard Pictet, who grew the institutional business; and Claude de Saussure, who transformed the bank’s operational management and led the computerisation of Pictet’s banking processes.
Key figures
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6OfficesGeneva, Montreal, Nassau, London, Tokyo, Zurich
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295StaffEmployees
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6CHF billionAssets under management (1975)
Pictures from that time
Meanwhile...
Former partner Jean-Jacques Gautier founded the Association for the Prevention of Torture in 1977. He championed a programme of international visits to prisoners at risk of inhumane, cruel, or degrading treatment. These efforts ultimately led to the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) by the United Nations in 2002.
Partners in the 70s: (from left to right) Guy Demole, Denis de Marignac, Claude de Saussure, Michel Pictet, Jean-Pierre Demole, Edouard Pictet, Jean-Jacques Gautier, and Pierre Pictet.
A client asked me once if he could celebrate his 100th birthday at the bank. ‘Of course,’ I said, ‘but why at the bank and not at home?’ ‘Well,’ replied the client, ‘all my contemporaries have died, and as my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren are clients of Pictet, this is where I feel most at home.’
Verena Loewensberg
Untitled, 1976
Collection Pictet
1989 — Globalisation takes hold
The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War. With the apparent victory of capitalism over communism, a new globalised world emerged, offering many new opportunities (and risks) for investment.
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World context
Opportunities in the East
In 1986, the European Economic Community (EEC) adopted the Single European Act, which laid the groundwork for the single market and the introduction of the euro in 1999. In Asia, China’s economy began to take off on the back of a wave of reform and economic modernisation that started in 1978.
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At Pictet
Adapting to globalisation
With the internationalisation of markets, the bank began to cater to more clients with larger portfolios, created new investment vehicles, and embraced modern management techniques. Various changes in economic regulation and policies led to the opening of two further offices abroad: the Hong Kong wealth management office in 1986 and Luxembourg, where, in 1989, Pictet was granted its first banking licence inside what would later become the European Union.
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Key business activities
Modernising our products
While Pictet had been making hedge fund investments for selected clients since the 1980s, the first private equity investments were made in 1989. In 1990, the Amerosec fund was converted into a type of fund of hedge funds, and in 1994, Mosaic, Pictet’s first true fund of hedge funds, was born. The launch of the Emerging Markets fund in 1991 made Pictet & Cie a pioneer in emerging market investing, and by 1996, the firm began to develop its fund-based activities.
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Partners’ legacies
From UBS to Pictet
Pierre Lardy, a partner from 1975 to 1995, was the first to join the partnership directly without first serving as an employee. He joined from UBS and brought much-needed Middle Eastern expertise to Pictet, leading trading and private banking for the region. A little over 20 years later, it was Pierre who invited Renaud de Planta to join the partnership directly, also from UBS.
Key figures
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8OfficesGeneva, Montreal, Nassau, London, Tokyo, Zurich, Hong Kong, Luxembourg
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656StaffEmployees
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23CHF billionAssets under management (1985)
Pictures from that time
Emerging Market fund advert, 1992: print ads were particularly used in the context of the bank’s fund distribution activities.
Opening doors: one of the first adverts for the bank. In the 1990s the bank becomes more open to marketing of this kind.
Meanwhile...
In 1984, the motorcycle factory Motosacoche, originally financed by Edouard Demole, finally closed its doors. For almost a century, the company produced engines to convert bicycles into motorcycles. The factory was located on the site of Pictet’s current Geneva head office. In the 1920s, it employed 1,200 workers, producing motorcycles and engines with international appeal. At one time, Georges de Planta (Renaud’s grandfather) was their chief engineer.
The Motosacoche factory was located on the site of Pictet’s current Geneva headquarters.
Charles Pictet was fond of enumerating four main reasons for opening in Luxembourg. First, he would say, Luxembourg, like Geneva, follows the Napoleonic code. Which means the Luxembourg way of thinking is close to the Swiss. Second, it has a stable regulatory framework. Third, it’s close to Geneva. And fourth, it has a neighbouring language and culture. Oh, and there’s a fifth, he would add. ‘The food is very good.’
Miriam Cahn
atombombe, 19.08.1988
Collection Pictet
2005 — From legacy to excellence
Having preserved its reputation and stability for 200 years, the firm became a private bank of international stature with 2,000 employees. A period of consolidation and professionalisation of services followed, leading to the bank we know today.
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World context
The end of banking secrecy
The era of unfettered globalisation appeared to be coming to an end as a number of key developments unfolded. In response to the 2008 banking crisis, Western governments, in need of revenue, dismantled Swiss banking secrecy by erasing the distinction between tax evasion and fraud. At a global level, awareness of the harmful effects of human activity on the climate began to grow.
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At Pictet
European expansion and modernisation
Pictet established onshore offices in numerous European markets. In Italy alone, offices were opened in Milan, Rome, Turin, Bologna, and Florence (although the latter two closed in 2015). The bank relocated its Geneva head office from the traditional financial hub of the quartier des banques to a purpose-built building in Acacias in 2006. In 2007, the bank upgraded its banking system to Avaloq from the proprietary Pictet Informatic Banking System (fondly known as PIBS), which was first introduced in 1968.
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Key business activities
Unifying visions
In 1999, all institutional activities were grouped together in one division, Pictet Asset Management. The Water fund was launched soon after, laying the foundations for Pictet’s thematic franchise and the underlying environmental focus of many of its funds. All wealth management activities were merged under Pictet Wealth Management in 2009, marking a new era for the traditional gérance privée. The Tokyo office began to see success, thanks in part to the strong support it had received from Ivan Pictet and Renaud de Planta over the years. Pictet and its partners professionalised their longstanding philanthropic tradition in 2009 by establishing the Fondation de Bienfaisance du groupe Pictet (Pictet Group Charitable Foundation). Its structure was further modernised in 2020, when it was renamed the Pictet Group Foundation.
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Partners’ legacies
Expansion, successes and values
Charles Pictet drove the expansion of global custody, created the family office, and shared responsibility for institutional investment with Pierre Lardy. He also led the growth of the bank’s business in Italy and Luxembourg. Charles was Senior Partner until 2005, before handing the reins to Ivan, who was integral to the success of the Tokyo office, among many other achievements, and the first to define the bank’s values in Le Modèle Pictet - pérennité, intégrité, excellence et discrétion.
Key figures
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19OfficesGeneva, Montreal, Nassau, London, Tokyo, Zurich, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Singapore, Lausanne, Frankfurt, Milan, Turin, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Barcelone, Basel, Osaka
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2,149StaffEmployees
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295CHF billionAssets under management (2005)
Pictures from that time
Meanwhile...
The Pictet Family Archives Foundation was established in 2007 to collate all documents, photographs, and artefacts that help illustrate the family’s rich history. The Prix Pictet was launched in 2008 to harness the power of photography to draw global attention to issues concerning sustainability. It has since become one of the world’s leading awards for photography and sustainability.
The bicentennial anniversary of Pictet is celebrated across the Group in 2005.
Pictet is no longer the family business that it has been for much of its history. Nor is it now even a ‘family run’ business, as Ivan Pictet suggested in 2005. Nonetheless, it is a business with strong family characteristics; and it is a private entity entirely owned by the Partners, at least one of whom has carried the Pictet name without interruption since 1841.
Albrecht Schnider
Untitled, 2005
Collection Pictet
2025 — Embracing the future, respecting tradition
2025 marks Pictet’s 220th anniversary and work on its new head office is due to be completed. The Campus Pictet de Rochemont will represent an institution proud of its roots, with a clear focus on success and sustainability for future generations.
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International backdrop
The pandemic and geopolitical tension
The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic compelled governments worldwide to implement drastic measures to contain the disease. Three decades after the end of the Cold War, the invasion of Ukraine has pushed the Western world to the verge of armed conflict with Russia.
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At Pictet
Foundations for the future
Pictet’s IT capabilities were put to the ultimate test in March 2020 as governments around the world urged citizens to work from home in response to the pandemic. Remarkably, 90% of staff were successfully transitioned to remote working within a month. This move marked the dawn of hybrid working at Pictet. In 2020, Pictet Alternative Advisors (PAA) was named a standalone business line, underlining the bank’s ambition to expand into direct private assets. Pictet believes in its responsibility to accelerate the global economic transition towards net zero emissions, in line with climate science. In 2022, the bank published its Climate Action Plan, outlining its path towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
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Key business activities
Ambition 2025 and beyond
IIn 2020, Pictet embarked on a strategic plan named Ambition 2025. At its launch, the Partners outlined the topics they wanted to address, stating: “As a Group, we take a long-term view when advising our clients and have thought deeply about the overarching themes we believe will shape the business of finance in the coming years.” Since then, every five years, Pictet identifies the megatrends and influences that will affect both the financial industry and the business. While there are tactical adjustments, the core principles and values that have guided the company for the last 220 years remain firm.
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Partners’ legacies
A new legal structure to secure the future
As Senior Partner, Jacques de Saussure oversaw two significant changes: preparing the bank for the automatic exchange of information with the OECD and Pictet’s change in legal structure from an unlimited partnership to a partnership limited by shares. Nicolas Pictet carried Jacques’s preparations forward and successfully guided the bank through the OECD regulatory change and compliance with US FATCA regulations.
Key figures
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31OfficesGeneva, Montreal, Nassau, London, Tokyo, Zurich, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Singapore, Lausanne, Frankfurt, Milan, Turin, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Dubai, Basel, Osaka, Tapei, Amsterdam, Brussels, Tel-Aviv, Munich, Verona, Stuttgart, Monaco, New York, Shanghai, Lisbon
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5,496StaffEmployees
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724CHF billionAssets under management (2024)
Today in pictures
Meanwhile...
Ivan Pictet created the Fondation Portail des Nations to support the project to build a visitor centre for the United Nations in Geneva. The aim of the new centre is to promote “soft power” and the virtues of multilateralism at a time when the purpose of such institutions is being questioned. Guy Demole, a former Partner, keen musician, and patron of the musical arts in Geneva, was awarded the title of Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2011 for his services to music.
The Partners in January 2024 — From left to right, back row: Raymond Sagayam, Sébastien Eisinger, Sven Holstenson — front row: François Pictet, Elif Aktuğ, Marc Pictet, Laurent Ramsey.
In the modern era, Pictet has been able to balance a respect for heritage with the need for fresh talent in a way that has been endlessly productive. To succeed, it has required, and requires, the now somewhat unfashionable characteristics of dedication, character, goodwill and perserverance.
Disclaimer
This marketing document is not aimed at or intended for distribution to or use by any person who is a citizen or resident of, or domiciled in, or any entity that is registered in, a country or other jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, availability or use would be contrary to law or regulation. The information and material contained herein are provided for information purposes only and are not to be used or considered as an offer or solicitation to subscribe to any securities or other financial instruments or services. Furthermore, the information appearing in this document is subject to change without prior notice. Only the English version of this document is authoritative.
This historical timeline is complemented by archival material from the Pictet Corporate Archives and the Pictet Family Archives, artworks from the Collection Pictet, and quotes from corporate historical publications including:
- Witnesses to History – An essential guide to Pictet in fifty anecdotes.
- La Maison – The Origins and Evolution of the Pictet Group.