Balancing Innovation With Tradition: Western Europe’s private banks are stepping up their digital game in a big way.
Amid resilient markets and renewed investor confidence, Western Europe’s private banks entered 2025 on solid footing. Asset growth and client inflows strengthened across major hubs, even as rising competition and margin pressure tested performance and execution within the industry.
To stay ahead, firms sharpened their focus on technology-driven personalization, using artificial intelligence and analytics to enhance advisory quality, efficiency, and responsiveness.
At the same time, growing demand for alternative assets and sustainable strategies pushed banks to further broaden their offerings beyond traditional mandates.
This was also a year of consolidation and strategic repositioning, as larger institutions pursued scale through acquisitions and smaller players sought partnerships to stay competitive.
The standouts were those that managed to balance innovation with tradition, embracing digital transformation while preserving the trust and close relationships that define private banking in Western Europe.
Best Private Bank: UBS
Further building on the completion of the mega Credit Suisse merger, UBS Private Bank continued to expand its leadership as the world’s largest private banking franchise, with invested assets reaching an astonishing $6.6 trillion in 2025.
But scale is only part of the Swiss giant’s fantastic year in nearly every corner of the business. The bank continued to relentlessly improve its offering through both access to new markets and improved technological execution.
Recently, UBS launched a private-credit platform in partnership with global investment leader General Atlantic, providing wealth management clients access to institutional-quality direct lending and customized capital solutions.
On the asset front, the bank launched a multi year collaboration with the London Stock Exchange Group, bringing advanced data, AI-driven analytics, and integrated infrastructure to its global wealth operations.
UBS also strengthened its leadership team with senior hires in investment banking and M&A, reinforcing its “OneBank” model to deliver holistic solutions to clients.
Best Private Bank For Sustainable Investing: Bank J. Safra Sarasin
J. Safra Sarasin’s three-tier governance framework—comprising an ESG Committee, Corporate Sustainability Board, and external Sustainability Advisory Council—remains central to the bank’s resilience and credibility in an increasingly complex ESG landscape.
The bank’s proprietary ESG Rating system, first introduced in 2001 and refined each year since, forms the basis of its Sustainability Matrix, which now assesses more than 16,000 companies and supports every investment universe and mandate.
In 2024-2025, the bank expanded its sustainable product range with two thematic strategies: the JSS Sustainable Equity – Strategic Materials fund and the JSS Commodity – Transition Enhanced fund, both directing private-client capital toward materials essential to the global energy transition.
These launches were complemented by the rollout of an in-house SDG Engine, a proprietary tool that measures how company revenues align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and a Green Bond Reporting Framework, enhancing the tracking of tangible outcomes such as the avoidance of 110,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Best Private Bank Digital Solutions For Clients: BNP Paribas Banque Privée
Despite its consolidated leadership in the space, BNP Paribas Banque Privée has continued to push the limits of its digital offering this year, setting the benchmark for innovation in private banking across Western Europe.
Among the French giant’s most recent milestones is the expansion of e-Private, France’s first fully digital private-banking service, which now serves over 5,700 clients managing €2.8 billion. The platform offers a 100% remote experience while maintaining direct access to dedicated bankers and extended service hours. Alongside it, the “MesComptes” mobile app delivers real-time portfolio visibility, electronic signatures, and personalized dashboards, enabling clients to manage all transactions independently and with investor-grade precision.
The bank has also continued to work on improving the user experience side, with new products such as My Private Assets, a digital gateway to unlisted investments, and MyMand@te, a discretionary-management platform with €2.7 billion in AUM, hitting the market. Together, they allow clients to access public and private market strategies seamlessly online.
