Banque Heritage had its earliest beginnings amongst a group of students at the University of Lausanne in the 1970s, all amongst the first generation to study business at university level prior to embarking on careers in finance. As undergraduates, Carlos Esteve, Antonio Bravo and Louis-Fredéric de Pfyffer shared their ideas for a different kind of private bank, but it wasn’t until some fifteen years later – after a good deal of exposure to the realities of business and finance – that they were eventually reunited to build the bank they had imagined.

In 1986, after 10 years working in audit, consulting and private banking, Carlos Esteve created a small family office to manage the assets of the Esteve family, which he built with success to warrant the extension of his methods to assets outside those of his immediate family. Consolidating the reputation of his firm around an independent approach to research and product sourcing, as well as flexible asset allocation and a commitment to reporting returns measured as absolute rather than relative to benchmarks, the transformation from family office to fully fledged bank got underway in earnest.

Rejoined by his former student colleagues, and by a growing array of management talent, Carlos Esteve has guided Banque Heritage through its regulation by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission and relocation to a new headquarters building in Geneva. Now employing some 100 individuals and operating in joint venture and partnership with 5 organisations that hold interests in Europe and around the world, Banque Heritage continues to grow as it holds firm to its founding principles of integrity, prudence, independence and professionalism.