The Rockefeller of Geneva
It was during his years in Milan that the future banker discovered Switzerland, as part of the gold trade that he carried out for his father from Milan. Although on the move almost constantly around the world, Edmond Safra made Geneva his essential base for more than forty years, becoming the “Rockefeller of Geneva”, according to this biography.
The financial company he created in 1956, Sudafin (rue du Stand), became the Trade Development Bank (TDB) at the end of the decade and welcomed wealthy people from around the world seeking refuge in the political turmoil of the years. 1960. Establishing himself in the historic stronghold of private bankers being an ambitious maneuver for a 27-year-old Lebanese Jew with a Brazilian passport, Edmond Safra surrounded himself with Swiss people with connections in the political world.
Listed on the stock exchange in 1972, TDB, located on rue de Chantepoulet, was sold in 1982 to American Express for $550 million. At the end of the five-year non-compete period, Safra – who had meanwhile married Lily – launched a new bank in Geneva, the Republic National Bank of New York (Switzerland). Disagreements over the operation of American Express (of which Edmond Safra has become a shareholder), the recruitment of former TDB employees and the arrival of customers probably explain the tensions between the American group and the banker, very detailed in the book. .
Having demonstrated that he was the subject of a smear campaign, Edmond Safra obtained a public apology from American Express, whom he asked to donate $8 million to charitable organizations. In 1990, TDB was taken over by Compagnie de Banque et d’Investissements (CBI), which then became UBP. The current Bank J. Safra Sarasin was created by Joseph, Edmond’s younger brother, before merging with Sarasin in the early 2010s.
An empire built on a name
Raised in Beirut in a family originally from Aleppo in Syria, having left school at 15, Edmond Safra built an empire which included Banco Safra in Brazil, the Trade Development Bank in Geneva and Republic in New York. At its core, two simple principles: the owner of a bank is responsible for everything and the activity is intergenerational, which had been practiced by his ancestors and would be practiced by his descendants.
“If you have this mentality, the depositors must be protected at all costs and your name, your assets and the reputation of your family are at stake, so you behave a little differently,” summarizes Daniel Gross, who had access to the archives personal and professional of Edmond Safra, himself an extremely discreet character very little given to interviews in the media. This “a little different” behavior also included a tendency towards micromanagement before the word was invented, and which pushed Edmond Safra to decide on the shape of the ashtrays or the size of the toilets in his Geneva bank (not too big, so that employees do not read the newspaper there).
Even though his banks were publicly traded, Edmond Safra still owned 30% of them and always said he would lose everything before anyone lost a single penny. Not liking to lend to borrowers he did not know, he preferred to finance projects guaranteed by the IMF or the World Bank, or lend to reliable banks. He received a lower interest rate, but did not have to worry about possible losses on his loans. Its establishments were also present in activities that major competitors disdained at the time, such as trading gold, currencies, or even moving banknotes. The boss’s philosophy: “Earn a dollar a day, but every day.”
Avoidable death in Monaco
The book also discusses the death of Edmond Safra, already weakened by Alzheimer’s disease, in his Monaco apartment in 1999, following a fire started by his nurse, who wanted to appear as his savior. A death that could have been avoided if a series of errors had not been made, Daniel Gross says today. Concluded before his death, it was only after his death that the sale of Edmond Safra’s empire to HSBC was completed, for $10 billion, in 2000.
* The book will be the subject of a private view this Tuesday in Geneva.
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