Silk and Money
Despite experiencing profound economic difficulties and high unemployment, Henri Hentsch came back to Geneva to found Hy Hentsch & Co. in 1796. The firm, known as a house of “Silk and Sales”, traded silk in parallel with its banking activities. Two years later, Jean Gédéon Lombard joined the company, and the name was changed to Bank Henri Hentsch & Lombard.
Henri Hentsch handled bills of exchange and letters of credit for foreigners. Some of his illustrious clients included Napoleon I and even Madame de Staël, daughter of Jacques Necker, the minister of finance to Louis XVI. In 1826, he founded a second establishment in Paris, leaving the company in Geneva to his son.
In 1907, the bank was a co-founder of the Swiss National Bank. In 1951, the bank was the first Swiss private bank to set up a branch abroad, in Montreal. In 2002, the name was changed to Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Co. By merging Lombard, Odier & Cie and Darier, Hentsch & Cie in 2002, the group Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie was established.
Dispute over Shares
A few years later, a dispute began: the Hentsch brothers, Carl Hentsch and Henri Hentsch, members of the eighth generation of the banking family, want either representation or one-quarter of the former Hentsch & Cie. In 2021, the Swiss court restricted the now elderly brothers’ claim to partners of Hentsch at the time, which effectively killed their case. Lombard Odier dropped “Darier Hentsch” from its name in 2009. The brothers wanted to extend their claim to current and recent partners of Lombard Odier, like Patrick Odier. They had argued that a family letter written in 1982—before Hentsch & Cie dissolved in a series of mergers—ensured them the right to work at the family firm Hentsch & Cie.
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In 2004, Bénédict Hentsch, a member of the seventh generation of the banking family, founded Banque Bénédict Hentsch & Cie. After merging with Banca Arner, it became ONE Swiss Bank SA in 2021, based in Geneva. One Swiss Bank SA specialises in private banking and tailored asset & wealth management. It provides its services to private and institutional clients across Switzerland and the world.
