Corporate culture, strategy and objectives

Vision and guiding principles

The LLB Group has a unique corporate culture. It is committed to a concept of banking with a binding system of values. We have enhanced our profile by redefining our vision and guiding principles in 2014 and firmly establishing them in the minds of the employees and managers in 2015 / 2016 (see chapter “Employees”).

Our vision is encapsulated in the sentence: “We set standards for banking with values”. Our vision of banking is based on the idea that we can excel at managing material values if we have a clearly defined system of values. The resulting guiding principles refer to a binding system of values, which mean the following to us:

• Integrity – we create clarity and stand by our word.
• Respectfulness – we believe in partnership and hold both clients and colleagues in high esteem.
• Excellence – we set standards through performance and passion.
• Pioneering – we play an active role in creating a sustainable future.

Rules of conduct

We are convinced that responsible and forward-looking management is decisive when it comes to sustaining business success. The LLB Group wants to be measured by its vision and its guiding principles. Its objective is to be a trusted and respectful partner to its clients.

Our values convey orientation, project reliability and promote trustworthiness. We expect the LLB Group’s corporate bodies and employees to comply with the applicable laws, regulations, directives, guidelines and professional standards as well as our rules of conduct, which we constantly adapt to the prevailing circumstances and to act with integrity.

StepUp2020 strategy

Strengthened after successfully refocusing, the LLB Group entered a new phase of strategic repositioning in 2016. It is actively addressing the challenges of the future world of banking. The geopolitical and economic environment remains difficult: the strength of the Swiss franc, negative interest rates, volatile financial markets and stricter regulation are challenging the financial sector’s resilience. At the same time, digitalisation is on the rise. We are convinced that the combination of man and machine will determine success in a world in which digitalisation and innovation are the motors of growth and prosperity.

With the StepUp2020 strategy, we are targeting sustainable, profitable growth. Up to 2020, the main focus will be on four core elements:

• Growth: We want to achieve this in two ways. Firstly, we want to grow organically by building on our own strengths. We will give high priority to dedicating additional resources to our client advisory services. The LLB Group will recruit more client advisers. Secondly, we will target acquisitions in our home markets of Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Austria.
• Profitability: We intend to increase our margins by offering outstanding products and services. Efficient market penetration will, in turn, help to generate profitable income. Maintaining strict cost management is also central to StepUp2020.
• Innovation: We will invest in the future in a targeted manner, on the one hand, to develop pioneering digital solutions and, on the other, to provide our clients with an optimised and personalised service. We will automate our standard business and take a personalised approach to our business based on trust.
• Excellence: We will optimise processes throughout the organisation using lean management principles. Our aim is to increase the benefit to clients, boost added value and omit the unnecessary. Growing regulation is a big challenge for all financial market participants. We make it a point to set and live up to high compliance standards. We believe that an outstanding level of expertise is a key success factor and therefore promote focused certified training programmes for our client advisers.

Four financial targets

Under the StepUp2020 strategy, the LLB Group will pursue four financial targets until the end of 2020: