Bank Gutmann Aktiengesellschaft

Based on a strong tradition entrepreneurship and more than 30 years’ experience as a specialist in wealth management and investment advisory services for institutional clients and wealthy individuals, Bank Gutmann has emerged in recent years as the Austrian market leader in private banking.

The Bank’s historical roots go back to the first quarter of the 20th century – the Bank was founded in 1922 – and to two distinguished Austrian families of entrepreneurs: the Gutmann family, who played an important role in the industrial development of our region in the period between Gründerzeit (the second half of the 19th century) and the First Republic (1918–1938), and the Kahane family, one of the leading entrepreneurial families of the Second Republic (from 1945 onwards). The values that continue to shape the Bank’s high standards to this day can be attributed to the far-sightedness, courage and prudence of outstanding members of these two families.

Today as well, it is the Kahane family as majority shareholder that provides our Bank with a strong capital base. In addition, senior executives also hold shares in the Bank as partners. Beside the core shareholder’s  management principles and strong sense of responsibility, it is specifically this approach that guarantees that the values that guide us in serving our clients and in managing the bank are continuity, quality and utmost care´.

More than 40 years ago, Bank Gutmann was already placing bonds issued by the Austrian government and public-sector utility and road construction companies with leading Austrian insurance companies, thereby making an important contribution to financing Austria's infrastructure. These transactions marked the beginning of the fledgling Austrian capital market and provided a solid foundation for the Bank’s present position in providing capital market and securities advisory services to institutional investors from the insurance and banking industries. We also supported the creation of external company pension funds in the 1990s as a capital provider and advisor and established the Bank successfully in this important customer segment with a specialised range of advisory services.

Founded in 1986, Gutmann Kapitalanlageaktiengesellschaft quickly became an important pillar in our range of securities services for institutional clients and wealthy individuals by focusing on custom investment fund solutions. At the same time, we fully automated our Bank’s securities custody system, developing it into one of the leading centres for settlement and custodial services for securities in Austria. These two systems provide the perfect platform for the Gutmann Portfolio Management Trialog, which was established in the mid-1990s and enables us to collaborate efficiently and successfully with independent research partners and selected international portfolio management experts.

The growing affluence of Austrian entrepreneurs and other wealthy groups in the country provided an opportunity for the successful expansion of our advisory services for wealthy private clients. Many years of robust growth have made us the leading domestic provider of comprehensive investment counselling to this discerning group of customers. Thanks to our prudent business model we also emerged stronger from the crisis of the years 2008-2009. In the mid-1990s, our Bank established a large number of Austrian private foundations designed to preserve family wealth in response to the special advisory needs of another client segment. Here again, we were able to position the Bank successfully as a leading advisor with a highly specialised in-house team of professionals.

Our International Private Banking operations have likewise been growing continuously. Beside our client base in Austria we serve clients from Central and Eastern Europe, Germany, and Latin America. We have local subsidiaries in Hungary (Budapest) and Romania (Bucharest).