Feb 25 (Reuters) – Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild said on Wednesday its board would “monitor the situation” after U.S. Department of Justice files showed CEO Ariane de Rothschild kept up years-long contact with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as she sought to reassure clients and staff about the firm’s financial strength.
“The Board of Directors, which represents the bank’s senior management and is chaired by Yves Perrier, has organized itself to monitor the situation independently, in addition to the work and analyses carried out by management,” the bank said in a statement.
Since the DOJ’s publication of documents, the bank’s board has taken the “necessary measures to protect the interests of its customers, employees, and shareholders,” the company added.
Ariane de Rothschild this week wrote to clients of the bank and employees to reassure them about the strength of the group, a spokesperson told Reuters.
De Rothschild, a member of one of Europe’s most famous banking dynasties after her marriage to Benjamin de Rothschild in 1999, has since 2023 been the CEO of the Geneva-based bank, which oversees 184 billion Swiss francs ($238 billion) in assets.
U.S. Justice Department files released last month showed de Rothschild kept up a years-long personal correspondence with Epstein before his 2019 arrest.
After the files were released, a spokesperson for the bank told Reuters that Epstein was a business acquaintance of de Rothschild from 2013 to 2019.
De Rothschild had no knowledge of Epstein’s conduct and “unequivocally condemns his behaviour and the crimes which he committed,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement earlier this month, without responding to several requests for comment on specific exchanges between the two.
The bank also said in its statement on Wednesday that it had seen more than 5 billion Swiss francs in net inflows in 2026, with the inflows “remaining particularly strong” since January. It was preparing to announce financial results for 2025 soon, it added.
($1 = 0.7728 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Fabiola Arámburo in Mexico City, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Editing by Franklin Paul and Lincoln Feast.)
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