About

In operation since 1850, Luzerner Kantonalbank is the historic government-owned commercial retail banking group based in the Swiss canton of Lucerne. As a bank focussed on financing small businesses in Lucerne and in the rest of German-speaking Switzerland, Luzerner Kantonalbank offers full-service banking products ranging from personal loans and mortgages to financial planning and pensions, and employs approximately 1,000 people. Louis Fischer, head of legal, and his team are responsible for the legal security and regulatory compliance of the bank, and with several impending changes stemming from the process of partial privatisation they will be crucial to overcoming the impending regulatory hurdles this brings. Recent accolades for Fischer’s team can be directly linked to the legal function steering the bank through troubled times, having recently concluded an agreement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to settle the tax affairs of clients with ties to the USA. Despite penalties being implemented due to the outcome of the DoJ’s Swiss Bank Program, Fischer and team were able to mitigate a significantly negative impact by cooperating in full. Luzerner Kantonalbank emerged from this difficult situation with success, with its 2015 results being the second-best in the bank’s history. These results were boosted by the successful achievement of financial targets that were set for the 2011-2015 strategy period.