Swiss bank says it has $48mn invested with Madoff

GENEVA: A private Swiss bank says it has 56 million Swiss francs ($47.5 million) of client assets invested under the management of U.S. financier Bernard L. Madoff, who has been accused of securities fraud.

Banque Benedict Hentsch Fairfield Partners SA said in a statement on its Web site Saturday that it is taking "all necessary measures to protect the interests of its clientele and its own interests."

Madoff, a former Nasdaq stock market chairman, was arrested Thursday in New York hours after the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. He has been accused by U.S. authorities of running a phony investment business that lost at least $50 billion.

The Geneva bank said the amount of its exposure is less than 5 percent of the wealth it is managing.





The bank merged in September with a New York-based Fairfield Greenwich Group, one of the major investment funds that announced they had placed money with Madoff. Fairfield Greenwich describes itself as a leading alternative asset investment specialist offering "best of breed" hedge funds and related products.

Fairfield said it had $7.5 billion in investments linked to Madoff, about half its total $14.1 billion under management.

The Geneva daily Le Temps reported Saturday that financial institutions based in the Swiss city had invested at least 5 billion francs ($4.2 billion) in Madoff funds.

The Swiss Federal Banking Commission, the country's banking regulator, doesn't yet know the full impact of the Madoff case on Switzerland, said spokesman Alain Bichsel.