The Lombard Odier Group is an independent Swiss banking group based in Geneva. Its operations are organised into three divisions: private banking (wealth management), asset management, and IT and back and middle office services for other financial institutions. In 2025, the bank had total client assets of CHF 349 billion, which makes it one of the biggest players in the Swiss private banking sector.
The group was formed in the summer of 2002, as Lombard, Odier, Darier, Hentsch & Cie, by the merger of Lombard, Odier & Cie and Darier, Hentsch & Cie. As the latter was originally founded in 1796, the group has a claim to being the oldest private bank in Geneva. The company name was simplified to Lombard Odier Group in 2010, although the firm continues to include on its official logo the names of the four founding partners.
Since 2014, the bank has held the status of Limited Liability Company (LLC). The Lombard Odier Group is a legal holding company under Swiss law, bearing the name Lombard Odier Company SCmA since 2016. This holding company owns all firms belonging to the group, most notably the bank Lombard Odier & Cie SA, and Lombard Odier Asset Management (Europe) Limited in London, which forms the asset management branch of the group. Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) is the name the group is known by in the international field of asset management.
Outside of Switzerland, the group has branches in Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East. Including its network of collaborators, the group had around 2,900 employees worldwide at the end of 2025.
History The founding families The Lombard family (from Lombardi) arrived in Geneva in 1573 from Tortorella (Kingdom of Naples), fleeing religious persecution under viceroy Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle. The two sons of Theodoro Lombardi, César and Marc-Antoine Lombard, performed dressage and were involved in the horse trade. They received the title of burgesses of Geneva in 1589 for their services in the fight against the duke of Savoie. Jean-Gédéon Lombard, a 6th generation descendant of César Lombard, became associated with the bank Hentsch, Lombard & Cie in 1798, marking the entry of the Lombard family into the field of Genevan banking.
The Odier family is first documented as being in Geneva circa 1714, the same time when Antoine Odier received his title as Genevan burgess. The family came from Pont-en-Royans in France. Members of the family held positions as politicians, doctors, artists, engineers, and then bankers. Charles Odier became associated with the bank Lombard, Bonna & Cie in 1830, which then became Lombard, Odier & Cie.
The Darier family arrived in Geneva in 1738 from the Dauphiné region in France. Louis Darier died accidentally shortly after the birth of his son, Hugues Darier, who became a prominent figure in clockmaking and obtained the title of burgess of Geneva in 1787. Jules Darier-Rey, Hugues’ grandson, became associated with the bank Chaponnière & Cie in 1873. The firm became Darier, Chaponnière & Cie in 1875, and then Darier & Cie in 1880. Another of Hugues Darier's sons, Jean-Louis Darier (1766–1825), earlier on contributed to the beginnings of the bank Ferrier, Lullin & Cie in 1795, but this organisation remains without any link to what is now Lombard Odier.
The Hentsch family arrived in Geneva circa 1758, while Benjamin-Gottlob Hentsch (a clergyman) emigrated from Lower-Lusatia to become a tutor in Switzerland. His son, Henri Hentsch (1761–1835), founded the family bank in 1796.
Origins of the bank (1796–1800)
From 1789, the business and finance trade in Geneva were impacted by the French Revolution. In 1793, Henri Hentsch was arrested by the Genevan revolutionaries and temporarily exiled to Nyon, where he began a silk trading business with an associate, Edmé Mémo. Despite the environment of economic difficulty and increased unemployment, Henri Hentsch came back to Geneva to found H. Hentsch & Cie on 11 January 1796, at the age of 35. The firm, designated as a house of "Silk and Sales", traded silk in parallel with its banking activities as a first step. This was a classic format at the time, but it quickly abandoned trading to concentrate on banking as its sole focus. The firm allowed traders to take out loans, negotiate debts, settle bills of exchange, and more generally it allowed the trade of precious metals to be conducted, and exchange transactions to be carried out. All of this occurred at a time when several currencies were in circulation in Geneva.
On 26 April 1798, the Republic of Geneva was annexed by the French Republic. Henri Hentsch's cousin, Jean-Gédéon Lombard, then became a member of the Executive Council of the City of Geneva. Initially a proctor of Henri Hentsch, Jean-Gédéon became his partner at the bank on 19 June 1798. The firm then took the name Henri Hentsch & Lombard. However, not long after this, Henri Hentsch and Jean-Gédéon Lombard came to a disagreement on the strategy they should take facing the climate of local economic downturn; Jean-Gédéon Lombard wanted to limit the risks imposed by concentrating on bills of exchange operations which generated fixed commissions, while Henri Hentsch, renowned for his entrepreneurial and tenacious character, saw them moving into the international market, particularly for the finance of operations led by the First French Empire. The two partners separated amicably on 22 September 1800, and the bank returned to its former name Henri Hentsch & Cie, while Jean-Gédéon Lombard partnered with his brother-in-law Jean-Jacques Lullin to create the bank Lombard Lullin & Cie.
Lombard, Odier & Cie
Lombard, Lullin & Cie were heavily affected by the economic environment during the bank's first few years. From 1800, the bankruptcy of the firm Corsanges in Lyon resulted in Jean-Gédéon Lombard losing 30,000 francs, causing Jean-Jacques Lullin to go bankrupt. In spite of this, the firm was able to continue in business. Jean-Jacques Lullin left the bank on 31 December 1815, but continued as a limited partner until his death in 1837. Therefore, from 1816 the firm took the name Jean-Gédéon Lombard & Cie until 1 January 1826, when Jean-Gédéon Lombard partnered with Paul-Frédéric Bonna. The bank then took the name Lombard, Bonna & Cie. On 31 March 1830, Paul Frédéric Bonna left the firm to start his own bank, Bonna & Cie. The bank remained active for almost a century, before being absorbed into Hentsch & Cie in 1920.
In 1830, Jean-Gédéon Lombard (aged 66), handed over the bank to his eldest son Jean-Eloi Lombard. He then appointed Charles Odier as associate manager on 1 April 1830, and the bank became Lombard, Odier & Cie. Charles Odier, who was 25 years old at the time, had learned the banking profession from the firm Gabriel Odier & Cie, which was managed by his Parisian cousin, and held significant assets from the success of the company F. Courant & Odier, which he founded in 1826 in Le Havre for importing cotton from the USA. Jean-Eloi Lombard dedicated himself to local business while Charles Odier concerned himself with international business, particularly thanks to contacts that he had maintained from the US. Under the management of Jean-Eloi Lombard and Charles Odier, the bank financed large infrastructure works which characterised the Industrial Revolution. In 1834, Lombard, Odier & Cie co-financed the construction work at the Canal de Roanne in Digoin, a project which turned out to be unprofitable despite the successful completion of the canal. The firm then embarked on financing railways, and from 1852 to 1872, Charles Odier acted as one of the administrators of the West Switzerland Company.
In 1834, Alexandre Lombard, the third son of Jean-Gédéon Lombard (aged 24), became a managing partner for the bank. He was responsible for steering Lombard, Odier & Cie towards the American market, at a time when the American frontier needed both funding and construction for facilities, roads, railways and canals. This approach, which was deemed risky due to it coinciding with the end of the American financial crisis of 1837, proved to be a winning strategy ten years later. As the political and economic environment in Europe deteriorated following the revolts of 1848, the US experienced great expansion. Alexandre Lombard prioritised financing American railway companies. The bank issued letters to its clients containing quotes for international stock, at a time when these were difficult to access. In 1857, the partners from Lombard, Odier & Cie participated in creating the Geneva Stock Exchange.
On 1 December 1859, the only son of Charles Odier, Jacques (also known as James) Odier, became a partner at the bank. This followed his trip to the US in 1854 and his marriage to Blanche Lombard in 1856, the daughter of Jean-Eloi. Jacques Odier continued to grow Lombard, Odier & Cie on American soil. In 1870 he joined the executive board for the Genevan branch of what would become the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Bank of Paris and the Netherlands). Along with Jules Darier-Rey, in 1872 he also co-founded the Genevan life insurance company Genevoise Compagnie d'Assurance sur la Vie, which would later be chaired by his son Émile and then his grandson Edmond. Alexis Lombard, the son of Jean-Eloi Lombard and brother-in-law of Jacques Odier, became a partner in 1866. He became a founding member of the Chamber of Commerce of Geneva in 1872, created the Genevan Bank of loans and deposits in 1881, and became a member of the board of the Swiss National Bank after it was created in 1907.
Jules Verne mentioned Lombard, Odier & Cie in his novel From the Earth to the Moon (1865). In the novel, the bank collected donations to finance the scientific expedition. "Subscription lists were opened in all the principal cities of the Union, with a central office at the Baltimore Bank, 9 Baltimore Street. In addition, subscriptions were received at the following banks in the different states of the two continents: [...] At Berlin, Mendelssohn. At Geneva, Lombard, Odier and Co. At Constantinople, The Ottoman Bank.".
Alexis Lombard and Jacques Odier remained partners at the bank for half a century, continuing to manage the firm through the First World War, while their descendants Albert Lombard and Émile Odier were conscripted into the Swiss army. Throughout the war, business was unstable for the bank; nevertheless, they made it through this time without facing any major adversities, thanks to the strength of the Swiss franc and the country's neutrality, which allowed Swiss banks to act as places of refuge in Europe. Moreover, the bank remained primarily focused on investments in the US, which were not directly affected by the conflict. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lombard, Odier & Cie with only sixteen employees and three office staff, was one of the largest private banks in Geneva.
After the Great War, Émile Odier, (partner from 1890), Albert Lombard (partner from 1908), Albert's first cousin Jean Lombard (partner from 1913), and Émile's son Edmond Odier (partner from 1919) took over the management of the bank. In 1921, Lombard, Odier & Cie assumed ownership of the bank Lenoir, Julliard & Cie which was created in 1795. In 1929 and at the beginning of the 1930s, the Swiss financial sector was affected by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, which impacted the whole of Europe. Several Swiss banks recapitalised or had to close, such as the Banque de Genève (1931) and the Comptoir d’Escompte de Genève (1934).