Safra Sarasin to buy Bank Hapoalim

Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin Group has agreed to buy Bank Hapoalim's private banking businesses in Luxembourg and Switzerland, with offices in Zurich and Luxembourg, the Swiss group said on Tuesday.

"The agreement covers qualifying clients and their relationship management teams who are focused on private banking clients across Israel and Europe," it added in a statement. It gave no purchase price for the deal, which it said was set to wrap up in the first half of 2018 pending regulatory approval.

After the closure of Hapoalim Switzerland, Bank Hapoalim will have no substantial private banking business overseas.

Bank Hapoalim said that the decision to quit Switzerland was made in the light of its risk management policy, which calls for minimizing compliance risk in the group, such as arose in the investigation by the US authorities of alleged complicity in tax evasion by US citizens, in view of changes that have taken place in the global regulatory environment and their impact on such risks.