MBAER Bank - The Swiss Merchant Bank

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mBaer Necessities 03/24

mBaer Necessities 03/24

Monday mornings are dreadful as I get the weekly screen time report on my smartphone, exposing the details of my social media diet and internet excursions. I was pleased to see that my screen time went down 36% over the second week of March compared to the first week - every so often some good news -, I spent most of my time on social media (LinkedIn, WhatsApp) and much less time on news apps and websites (The Economist, FT).

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mBaer Necessities 01/24

mBaer Necessities 01/24

Markets and economic developments in 2023 validated our investment approach, as we generated good absolute and risk-adjusted returns for our clients, whilst we learnt some investment lessons from the big surprises to our expectations.

Inflation broadly declined, central banks kept on hiking rates, the US economy surprised positively on the growth side, equity markets rallied and fixed income had a very positive year.

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mBaer Necessities 12/23

mBaer Necessities 12/23

Many scientists are taking life extension seriously. Ageing-researchers want to make people live longer and increase the healthy part of the lifespan by reducing the frail part of the lifetime as much as possible. Therein lies the problem.

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mBaer Necessities 11/23 – 2

mBaer Necessities 11/23 – 2

Central banks' objectives are maintaining price stability and financial stability and do not include a profit motive. That said, last financial year will be remembered as a shocking year ...

 

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mBaer Necessities 11/23

mBaer Necessities 11/23

The fast and steep rise of interest rates in advanced economies over the last two years has surprised investors and economists reminding us of the need to approach yield curves' analysis with humility. ...

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mBaer Necessities 09/23

mBaer Necessities 09/23

Israel's remarkable economic performance continued in 2022, a new government coalition led by Mr. Netanyahu took power last December and the country marked its 75th anniversary in April. Yet, instead of celebrations, Israel faces a crisis.

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mBaer Necessities 07/23

mBaer Necessities 07/23

King Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned in Westminster Abbey on May 6th, with a sumptuous ceremony that delighted the planetary watching crowd. Britons who were celebrating the bestowal of the crown upon Charles III with coronation quiche, scones and booze, paid 25 percent higher prices ...

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mBaer Necessities 05/23

mBaer Necessities 05/23

Individuals and families are increasingly responsible for their own savings and investment decisions. We will enjoy longer lives and life expectancies are expected to increase. At the same time, the standard of living provided by a given amount of income is likely to fall over time due to inflation, as prices of goods and services ...

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mBaer Necessities 04/23

mBaer Necessities 04/23

History is replete with epic changes of heart. Last December, China stunned the world by announcing the exit from the zero-COVID policy, which had been in place since 2020, when Wuhan declared a full-scale lockdown and COVID was known as SARS-CoV-2. Households and businesses no longer should be worried about lockdowns, but the confidence of consumers and entrepreneurs is fragile and sentiment remains shaky. Hardly a surprise after three years of lockdowns.

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mBaer Necessities 02/23

mBaer Necessities 02/23

The death toll from the 6 February earthquake disaster topped 41,000 in Turkey and 6'000 in Syria and the full scale of the earthquake disaster is still unfolding. The World Health Organization (WHO) called the Turkey-Syria earthquakes "Europe's worst natural disaster in a century", estimating that some 26 million people across both countries need humanitarian aid and immediate assistance.

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mBaer Necessities 01/23

mBaer Necessities 01/23

Europe's gas and power concerns have been fading recently, driven by a fortuitous combination of a mild winter and lower demand for energy. This is good news. But the current gas prices are not low and Europe's gas supply remains fragile. Elevated energy prices are a significant contributor to inflation and a large drag on European growth for this year, at least. 

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mBaer Necessities 11/22

mBaer Necessities 11/22

In 2021, we launched the Global Investment Opportunities (GIO) strategies based on our proprietary factor investing approach. Our strategic asset allocation based on the insightful prediction of a surge in inflation resulted in strong risk-adjusted and relative performance for 2022.

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mBaer Necessities 10/22

mBaer Necessities 10/22

With inflation running at its highest level over several decades and forecasted to stay high in the next year, many people are concerned that the sharp increase in the price level will erode their standard of living and hence their life satisfaction

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mBaer Necessities 9/22

mBaer Necessities 9/22

Inflation is running at its highest level over four decades and is forecasted to stay high and far above central banks' targets also next year. Central banks failed to deliver on their commitment to keeping inflation under control. Fed and ECB can only restore their credibility by acting aggressively to bring inflation down and compensate for their policy, forecasting and communication errors.

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mBaer Necessities 08/22

mBaer Necessities 08/22

Global warming has already had a major impact on the occurrence of snow. Snow and glacier melt is largely responsible for filling the world's natural water towers. The system is subject to diverse and intensive use. But will it stay that way?

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	mBaer Necessities 07/22

mBaer Necessities 07/22

Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine has exposed the chimera of fueling economic growth whilst moving to cleaner sources of energy and keeping climate change in check.

German government, industry and citizens are called to make choices that may slow or even reverse some of the country's ambitious climate goals.

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mBaer Necessities 06/22

mBaer Necessities 06/22

The oil and gas prices surge in the post-COVID recovery period and, more substantially, due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, gave the perception that oil firms are unfairly profiting from high energy prices, or even worse, from war and bloodshed.

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The curious case of the vanishing American worker

The curious case of the vanishing American worker

The expression "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics" has been around almost as long as the word statistics (first coined in 1770, for those wondering). The overall picture does not always look right, even when statistics are carefully checked and correctly reported.

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mBaer Necessities 05/22

mBaer Necessities 05/22

Neutrality is an inherent component of Swiss identity and origin; historically, neutrality has been critical to Switzerland's security and foreign policy. The Swiss foreign-policy stance of strict neutrality has become less applicable in the post-Cold War world order, forcing Switzerland to re-interpret its neutrality policy in light of the Ukrainian conflict.

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Inflation Reaches Switzerland

Inflation Reaches Switzerland

After decades of being a rather marginal topic, inflation is now back at the top of the agendas of policy makers and the investment community. This has led SFI to analyze the current inflationary environment in a comprehensive Public Discussion Note (PDN) entitled "Rising Inflation—A Roadmap for Investors".

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The Journey

The Journey

From the start until today - a journey that requires a lot of courage, know-how and commitment. We made the decision to go a new way with passion and great motivation and thus built a new bank.

Building a new bank

Building a new bank

We are a new bank with strong roots – shaped by the original idea and the beginnings of merchant banks. We took this model as our inspiration when we founded MBaer Merchant Bank.

Our Focus

Our Focus

We ask a lot of questions and support our customers closely in their work. That is why we understand the business and the needs of our customers precisely.

Products & Services

Products & Services

We are strongly connected with our customers. We support them by offering tailor-made services and top service.

mBaer Necessities 04/22

mBaer Necessities 04/22

As central banks appear to be committed to changing their mindset by transitioning from QE to QT, investors should be prepared to change their paradigm and assumptions about central banks' support. The risk is for some of the investors to metamorphose from QE-addicted Wolfs of Wall Street to QT-intolerant Chihuahuas of Bahnhofstrasse.

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mBaer Necessities 3/22

mBaer Necessities 3/22

Severing economic relationships and inflicting economic pain on Russia makes sense in war but is very costly also for the countries imposing the sanctions. Mr Putin's invasion of Ukraine is unlikely to end soon, and we are not going to read an Instagram post from the Kremlin.

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CEO Talk | MBaer in den Medien

CEO Talk | MBaer in den Medien

Mike Bär geht heute mit seiner MBaer Merchant Bank einen eigenen Weg. Im CEO Talk erzählt er, was er anders machen will, als einige Banker-Kollegen. Und: Warum er seinen Mitarbeitenden Ferien a discrétion anbietet und was ihn dazu gebracht hat, dass er alle wichtigen Marathon-Läufe der Welt erfolgreich bestritten hat.

mBaer Necessities 02/22

mBaer Necessities 02/22

How can we learn from the future? What if we are all wrong? The quality of our decisions can be improved, and our forecasting skills can be trained in an uncertain world. The value of imagining alternative futures is in the process of questioning assumptions and common mental models, and in preparing for uncertain but conceivable futures.

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We move into new offices

We move into new offices

Our bank has grown steadily since its foundation in December 2018.

That is why we will be moving into new office premises in Zürich-Enge as of March 7, 2022.

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mBaer Necessities | 01/2022

mBaer Necessities | 01/2022

In 2021, we launched the Global Investment Opportunities (GIO) mandates based on our proprietary factor investing approach. The strategic investments based on the insightful prediction of a surge in inflation resulted in a strong absolute and relative performance for the year.

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Live Ticker: Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

Live Ticker: Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

As a sponsor of the SWISS RAW team, we follow the toughest rowing race up close and cheer along with the team. We regularly share the most important events, race progress and emotions in this blog post. 

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mBaer Necessities 12/21

mBaer Necessities 12/21

How can we meaningfully compare welfare across time and countries? Individual memories are subject to fading, and cultural values change in time, making it difficult to compare well-being over the past few decades. 

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New vacation policy at MBaer Merchant Bank

New vacation policy at MBaer Merchant Bank

What is already common practice at US technology companies is now also becoming reality at a Swiss bank: employees can decide for themselves how much vacation they want to take.

Read more about it in the interview between Mike Bär and finews.ch.

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mBaer Necessities 11/21

mBaer Necessities 11/21

Massive retirement, safety concerns, generous government benefits and taking care of own family explain why millions of Americans have been leaving the workforce. This suggests that wage increases may not bring enough workers to hiring companies. With tight labour markets and high inflation, we expect the Fed to start raising interest rates already in 2022.

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mBaer Necessities 10/21

mBaer Necessities 10/21

There is no doubt in the scientific community and increasingly in the general public that climate change is a real and direct consequence of human activity. Climate change threatens, in some extreme scenarios, to bring us back to Stone Age living standards, according to William D. Nordhaus, the inventor of the modern economics of climate change.

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People and Culture

People and Culture

We promote an inspiring corporate culture, encourage entrepreneurial thinking and are passionate about our job.

mBaer Necessities 09/21

mBaer Necessities 09/21

Chips are everywhere: in consumer electronics, in cars, in medical devices and in defence systems. As such, they are a basic requirement for the functioning of modern economies. A global shortage of chips can thus have a disproportionate impact on the world economy. 

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The Differentiation

The Differentiation

We are the bank for entrepreneurs, their businesses and their families. This integrated view of their needs sets the course for the difference in integral support.

Press release

Press release

MBaer Merchant Bank is growing rapidly and is strengthening its leadership team.

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