The independent Lugano banks

A distinctive group

Beyond the State bank, the national retail banks and the big bank, the Lugano market contains a group of banks that have their head office in Ticino, are controlled by families or local shareholders and have survived the contraction of the last fifteen years. They are the closest Ticinese equivalent to the Geneva private banks discussed in the Geneva volume, although none of them is a private banking partnership with unlimited liability, and their business models differ widely. The group includes Cornèr Banca, Banca del Ceresio, Banca del Sempione, PKB Privatbank, Banca Zarattini & Co. and the Società Bancaria Ticinese, one of the three founding members of the ABT in 1920.¹ Their common feature is that their strategic decisions are taken in Lugano, by owners who have a long-term interest in the financial centre and who are themselves part of its social fabric.

Cornèr Banca: private banking and cards

Cornèr Banca was founded in Lugano in 1952 and joined the ABT in 1960.² It is the largest independent bank with its head office in Ticino and the only Lugano bank that has built a national consumer business. In 1975 Cornèr became the first bank in Switzerland to issue Visa cards, and its card division, marketed as Cornèrcard, has since become one of the main issuers of credit and prepaid cards in the country, both under its own brand and as a partner of other banks and retailers. In 2022 it was the first bank in Europe to launch Visa Commercial Pay, a virtual payment solution for corporate clients.³ The group's other activities include private banking, online trading and lending.

The financial figures for 2023 show the weight of the group in the Ticino economy. The group reported a net profit of CHF 74.9 million, an increase of 41 per cent, on revenues of CHF 506 million. Interest income rose by 37.7 per cent to CHF 188.1 million, commission and service income reached CHF 197.5 million and trading income CHF 110 million, while operating costs amounted to CHF 324.1 million. Total assets were close to CHF 8 billion and equity capital CHF 1.155 billion. At the end of 2023 the group employed 1,099 full-time staff, of whom 960 worked in Ticino, 115 in the rest of Switzerland and 24 abroad.⁴ With almost a thousand jobs in the canton, Cornèr is one of the largest private employers in the Ticino financial sector, and its card business gives Lugano a role in Swiss payment services that is not linked to Italian private wealth.

Banca del Ceresio and Ceresio Investors

Banca del Ceresio was founded in 1958 and grew out of a family office established in Milan in 1919.⁵ Its history is linked to the Foglia family and in particular to Alberto Foglia (1928–2021), who was one of the earliest supporters of the investor George Soros and served as chairman and later honorary chairman of Soros's Quantum Fund. Together with his brother Giambattista, Alberto Foglia built the bank in the 1960s and 1970s. The third generation, Antonio, Giacomo and Federico Foglia, now leads the group, which has operated under the name Ceresio Investors since 2019.⁶ In 2023 the group served more than 500 families, mainly in Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Monaco, with nearly CHF 9 billion in deposit accounts, and had offices in Lugano, Milan and London. Gabriele Corte has been general manager of Banca del Ceresio since 2018.⁷ The group has added a corporate advisory business based in Milan, built around a team of mergers and acquisitions specialists who came from BSI and who have arranged more than thirty transactions, several of them as club deals with the participation of the Foglia family.⁸ Banca del Ceresio joined the ABT in 1988.

Notes

1. Associazione Bancaria Ticinese, "Membri" (above) (Società Bancaria Ticinese SA, founding member of 1920). The present ownership and seat of the Società Bancaria Ticinese have not been verified. ↩
2. finews.ch, report on the Cornèr group's results for 2023 (2024), https://www.finews.ch/ticino/61597-gruppo-corner-banca-nazionale-svizzera-visa (founded in Lugano in 1952); Associazione Bancaria Ticinese, "Membri" (above) (member since 1960). ↩
3. finews.ch (Cornèr 2023, above) (first bank in Switzerland to issue Visa cards in 1975; first in Europe to launch Visa Commercial Pay in 2022). The description of Cornèrcard's market position is based on general knowledge. ↩
4. finews.ch (Cornèr 2023, above). The sale of the Slovenian subsidiary Dinit is mentioned in the same report. ↩
5. finews.asia, "George Soros and His Legendary Swiss Sponsor" (2023), https://www.finews.asia/people/40473-ceresio-investors-george-soros-ticino-italy-milan-alberto-foglia-lugano-banca-del-ceresio. ↩
6. finews.asia (2023, above). ↩
7. finews.ch, "Come Ceresio Investors vuole espandersi in tutta la Svizzera" (November 2023), https://www.finews.ch/ticino/60322-alberto-foglio-ceresio-investors-banca-del-ceresio-gabriele-corte-lugano-ticino-credit-suisse. ↩
8. finews.ch (November 2023, above) (M&A team led by Alessandro Santini, acquired from BSI about six years earlier; more than thirty transactions, including twelve club deals). ABT membership since 1988: Associazione Bancaria Ticinese, "Membri" (above). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.